Brussels, 21/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is proposing to extend until December 2003 the "ecopoint" system for road goods transit through Austria, and to revise the clause of the protocol for Austria's accession to the EU, which provides for automatic reduction of ecopoints when the road transit traffic exceeds that recorded in 1991 by 8% (so called "108% clause").
The proposal of regulation is accompanies by a particularly critical report on the way the system works. The system was finalised in order to reduce NOx emissions due to road transit in Austria by 60% between 1992 and 2003. In parallel, it provides for a threshold on the increase in annual traffic. If it is exceeded, the Commission will have to reduce the number of ecopoints distributed the following year. The 108% threshold (in practice, 1.6 million journeys) was exceeded in 1999 by 100,000 journeys, which brought the Commission to reduce the number of ecopoints by managing to have this reduction spread out until 2003 and not only 2000. Italy and Germany are the main users of the system, as they assure two thirds of the transit journeys in Austria. Austria itself is the third largest user, representing 15% of transit goods vehicles over its own territory.
The Commission notes that the system effectively encourages carriers to use less polluting lorries, since the number of ecopoints needed for travelling across Austria decreases depending on the levels of NOx emitted by vehicles. The proportion of lorries in transit paying the maximum 16 ecopoints (hence the most polluting) "went from 51% in 1993 to less than 2% in 1999", notes the Commission. The paradoxical consequence of this phenomenon is that the level of emissions has fallen, but the traffic has increased for an equivalent number of ecopoints. Hence, "it is difficult to justify penalties which in reality become applicable when lorries are too ecological", notes the Commission, adding that "sanctions arising from the 108% clause are out of proportion".
Another element of the system's "disproportion" is that the Commission notes "most lorries which use Austrian roads do not pay ecopoints because they make bilateral or local journeys (…) It is obvious that this traffic contributes to the pollution in Austria, without undergoing any quantitative restriction". The Commission also notes that the system for the electronic registration of ecopoints, in place since 1998, noted about 4% of unauthorised transit "which represents fraud of around half a million ecopoints per year". The Commission, however, "does not have the ability to intervene in action against hauliers".
Replacing the ecopoint system in the regional context, the Commission recalls that the agreement with Switzerland (that will allow transit of 34-tonne lorries on Swiss territory from next year on, and 40-tonne lorries from 2005) should allow better breakdown of Alpine traffic and the determining factor for the choice of itinerary will be the total cost of the journey.
On the basis of this, the Commission proposes, in addition to abolition of the 108% threshold: 1) examination of ways to best respond to the ecological concerns raised by road transit through Austria; 2) a study before expiry of the system on how to achieve sustainable protection of the "eventual environmental benefits derived from application of the ecopoint system"; 3) proposal of a regulation that would introduce into the ecopoint system a certain form of sanction against Member States, proportional to the number of ecopoints not paid by carriers residing in a State; 4) a study on the role of the railway in goods transport through Austria, in the context of the report on international freight transport by rail that the Commission is to present in 2001.
Commission places emphasis on fact that ecopoint system makes it possible
to radically reduce gas emissions
Presenting the report to the press with a press release, the Commission places emphasis on the positive aspect that results from the report, that is, the major impact of the system for environmental protection. The gas emissions in Austria due to the through- traffic of lorries has been reduced by 55% compared to the 1991 level. The aim was to bring it down by 60%, and it is in order to achieve this that the Commission proposes keeping the system in place until the end of 2003.
The Commission also recognises the inconsistencies and shortcomings of the system. The "traffic limitation" clause has even proved counter-productive. The Commission therefore proposes doing away with it. Commission Vice President Ms Loyola de Palacio declared: "we must now keep this system in place a few more years to achieve our targets for reduced pollution and to lay the foundations, from now on, for a more rational organisation of transport that will allow the environment to be protected while guaranteeing freedom of movement".