Brussels, 11/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commissioner for Transport, Loyola de Palacio, met on Wednesday the Austrian Vice-Chancellor, Susanne Riess-Passer, and the Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner and for Transport, Monika Forstinger, to try a find a way out from the problem of transit rights through Austria, the "ecopoints". A proposal from the Commission on this issue is expected next week.
The establishment in the framework of the accession protocol of Austria to the EU, the system is aimed at reducing by 60% the Nox pollution due to road traffic in the alpine region. Heavy goods vehicles transiting through Austria must pay on each journey a certain number of "ecopoints" corresponding to the emission of one gram of NOx/kwh produced by the vehicles. Moreover, when the traffic exceeds 8% for one year, compared to the traffic recorded in 1990, the Commission must reduce by as much the number of ecopoints available the following year. This ceiling, said of "108%", was exceeded in 1999 than in 2000, which would in principal force the Commission to reduce the number of ecopoints in 2000 and 2001. Under the pressure of most Member States concerned (Germany and Italy in particular) and road hauliers, the Council adopted a Commission proposal aiming to scale over three years the reduction of transit rights. Called for by Austria, the President of the Court of Justice blocked this decision through an order, while awaiting to rule of the substance of the case: the modification of the accession protocol.
The Commission still has to make it proposal on the reduction of the transit rights for 2001. It first challenged the validity of the Austrian road statistics (see EUROPE of 15 June, p.10), but its legal services underlined that the accession protocol foresees that the decision must be based either way on the Austrian statistics. European hauliers and the Member States concerned fear a drastic reduction in transit, which would be equivalent to around 150,000 crossings.
At the same time, the Transport Committee in the European Parliament adopted, on Tuesday, with a very small majority, 28 against 26, the report by the Austrian Social Democrat Hannes Swoboda proposing for the Parliament to reject the European Commission proposals for the modification of the ecopoints system, by removing the 108% clause. According to the Swoboda report, this modification would be counterproductive from the environmental point of view, for as much as the Commission has not presented an alternative solution. The EP Environment Committee unanimously adopted a report following the same line as the person close to Jörg Haider, Hans Kronberger.