Strasbourg, 05/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament approved with 303 votes for, 253 against and 18 abstentions, the European Commission's proposal providing for the suppression of the 108% clause in the ecopoints system that regulates road transit in Austria. The report by Austrian Social Democrat Hannes Swoboda, adopted by 28 to 26 in the transport committee, proposed that the Commission's project should be rejected (see EUROPE of 31 august, p.7).
Included in Austria's accession protocol for EU membership, the "108%" clause compels the Commission to reduce the number of transit rights available when traffic is 8% above the volume of road traffic recorded in 1991, during any given year. This reduction must be carried out the following year. After exceeding the 108% threshold in 1999, the Commission had nonetheless decided, with the support of a Council majority, to extend the reduction of ecopoints over three years. Pending the possibility to enact, an order from the president of the Court of Justice prevents it from doing so for the rise in traffic during the year 2000. Arguing that the Austrian statistics are invalid, the Commission nonetheless decided in July not to do anything for the year 2001.
In its legislative resolution, moreover, the Parliament invites the Commission to: 1) assess the impact of the ecopoints system on competition between Member States; 2) presents an immediate strategy for transport in the Alpine region, after expiry of the ecopoints system in 2004; 3) maintains between now and end 2003 a ceiling relating to the number of crossings per year, while "guaranteeing the correct calculation of the number of transit crossings and ensuring that, if this ceiling is exceeded, a sanction mechanism will be set in place that is more effective than the present mechanism". The Parliament gave its opinion in first reading, according to codecision procedure.