Brussels, 28/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Committee on Transport last week denounced the political agreement concluded during the extraordinary Transport Council of 31 December (see EUROPE of 3 January, p.3) on extension of the ecopoint system aimed at restricting the number of lorries travelling through Austria between end 2003 and end 2006 (with a lower number of ecopoints). Luciano Caveri (ELDR, Italy), Rapporteur and Chair of the Committee, said that the MEPs do not wish to extend the system. The report will be discussed in plenary in February, in Strasbourg (codecision, first reading), but, for some, conciliation procedure already seems inevitable. This position is in line with that of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) which announced in a press release that it was against extending the ecopoint system over and beyond 2003.
The parliamentary committee felt that: - it is necessary to find non-discriminatory solutions that reconcile the principles of free movement and protection of the environment; - if the proposal of directive on infrastructure pricing does not take effect end 2006, measures should be applied in the more sensitive regions (Brenner, Tauern, Pyrhn) to promote the use of environmentally-friendly lorries (on the basis of ecopoint quotas for 2002). This means that: - in 2004, there will be limits for the older lorries (EUR 0, 1 and 2) and free transit for the less polluting (EURO 3); - in 2005 and 2006, transit will be banned for EURO 0 and 1, there will be restrictions for EURO 2 (still on the basis of 2002 quotas) and free transit for EURO 3 and 4 (lorries built from 2004); - decisions taken in this connection must come within the framework of a sustainable transport policy for the whole Alpine region, and, above all, for sensitive regions (Brenner, Mont Blanc, Tauern, Pyrhn and the Lyons-Turin road link); - the countries concerned must set in place control systems to verify whether real nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions from heavy vehicles correspond to the authorised value; - and the number of ecopoints must be increased and distributed proportionally during accession by new member countries.