Brussels, 26/07/2001 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, the European Commission decided not to reduce the number of road transit rights through Austria, ecopoints, and to liberate the rights that have been blocked since March of this year. Austria had presented statistics in April demonstrating that 1,696,794 transit trips had been made by heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) on its territory in 2000, or an increase of 108% in relation to the reference year (1991) set by Austria's Accession Protocol to the EU. This threshold exceeded, the Commission ought to have cut-back the number of available ecopoints by a little over 1 million (or some 150,000 trips). The Member States most concerned, headed by Germany, nevertheless disputed the validity of the Austrian statistics. On verification, the Commission considered that "it was not proven that the 108% threshold had been exceeded". The European Commissioner for Transport, Loyola de Palacio, stated in an information note to the College of Commissioners that these doubts related in particular to 92,816 trips recorded as transit whereas there was no records of the lorry having left the territory (or 6% of the number of trips recorded) and of 54,386 trips where the lorry entered and left by the same border post (3.5%). By withdrawing these doubtful cases in the Austrian statistics, the 108% threshold would not have been exceeded in 2000, the Commission assures. Whence, the Commission considered that it was up to Austria to prove the validity of its statistics. The Austrian authorities have said that they intend to take this Commission decision before the Court of Justice.
Another affair of "ecopoints" is already before the Court of Justice, as Austria had attacked the decision the Council adopted in September 2000 to spread the reduction of ecopoints linked to the 108% threshold having been exceeded in 1999 over three years rather than one. The President of the Court of Justice passed down an order in February preventing the Commission from proposing this system of spreading out the period for exceeding the 108% threshold in 2000 (see EUROPE of 26 and 27 February, p.11).