09/11/2021 (Agence Europe) – On Tuesday 9 November, the Council of the EU adopted the agreement reached with the European Parliament on 15 June on the ‘Eurovignette’ directive (see EUROPE 12752/8). As a reminder, this agreement foresees that time-based vignettes will be phased out over an eight-year period for heavy goods vehicles within the core network of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), to be replaced by a distance-based system. Member States will also be able to set up a combined charging system incorporating distance, time, and CO2 emission criteria. An external cost charge for air pollution will be introduced for heavy goods vehicles after a period of four years following the introduction of the tolls. The text still needs to be adopted by the European Parliament (see EUROPE 12761/29). (TM)