On Wednesday 16 July, the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) approved, under a simplified procedure, the extension of an exemption for zero-emission heavy duty vehicles from road tolls and user charges until 30 June 2031.
Initially, only an exchange of views with the European Commission was planned, given that the text was presented at the end of June (see EUROPE 13669/7). However, Johan Danielsson (S&D, Swedish) proposed at the start of the session that the text be put directly to the vote in order to respond to the urgency of the situation. Despite opposition from Roman Haider (PfE, Austrian), the text was put to the vote and approved. It still has to be approved by the whole European Parliament at the September plenary session.
“This random extension, which the Commission now seems to want, prevents existing legal certainty”, deplored Mr Haider. He also felt that this proposal did not prevent double taxation and was “in direct contradiction with the concept of technological neutrality”. Volker Schnurrbusch (ENS, German) defended the same arguments.
For his part, the European Commission representative welcomed this rapid procedure, as the current exemption expires on 31 December 2025 and the Member States need time to transpose the amendment before that date. He pointed out that this measure is at the discretion of the Member States.
He also pointed out that by 2024, only 3.9% of new heavy duty vehicles put into circulation would be zero-emission vehicles. “And the exemption of tolls in this context can indeed play a role by reducing operational costs and build a stronger business case for investing in zero emission vehicles”, he said. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)