Brussels, 19/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - The legislative package on infrastructure tariffs, that aims to internalise transport costs (impacting the social cost, pollution and traffic jams on the user) has since Wednesday been the focus of interservice consultation. This package involves all transport modes (air, maritime, rail and road) and will only apply to Trans-European networks (TENs) and professional traffic (transport of merchandise and passengers). It is also founded on indications from the 1998 White Paper (on equitable transport tariffication) and 2001 (see EUROPE 5 September 2001) and contains: 1) a methodology for calculating the real cost of transport infrastructure (and not for harmonising tariffs; 2) a draft directive on tele-tolls, 3) a reflection on a public private partnership for funding TENs and cross border transport projects. The package is expected to be sent to Member States in two months' time.
Loyola de Palacio, the Commissioner thinks infrastructure tariff policy should be based on five principles: maintaining competitivess in the sector, assuring real and fair competition between the different modes of transport, taking into account the situation of peripheral countries like Sweden and Portugal; facilitating the funding of high-tech performance transport, environmental and security infrastructure, allowing for a large room for manoeuvre for subsidiarity (by concentrating on the professional sector and TENs alone). The Commissioner therefore said that certain points should b put on the table on which Member States should give their views in order to know exactly what they wanted, so that they could obtain a realistic proposal that had the chance of succeeding: should a maxim tariff band be fixed? As well as real quantifiable costs (maintenance and infrastructure investment), how could external non-quantifiable costs (noise, congestion, CO2 emission) be integrated?; receipts from tariffs for infrastructure should allow for investment only in the same kind s of infrastructure even if this involves cross financing for alternative structure are allowed? (Income raised from roads could finance the Brenner tunnel); will it be necessary to implement a management infrastructure in every Member State in charge of European level funds or a promotion agency for managing Trans-European networks to ensure their follow-up? The draft directive on tele-tolls aims to harmonise the Trans-European network over two periods: first of all, by technical convergence of the different systems in force in Member States; then by 2010 the implementation of a single tele-toll system in European territory linked to the GALILEO satellite navigation system. The reflection on the public private partnership aims to provide ideas for improving the use of public and European funding for TENs projects and cross-border projects via the setting up of European companies.