Brussels, 06/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - Regulation 2327/2003 establishing an interim system of points applicable to heavy vehicles crossing Austria in the year 2004 (the "ecopoints" system) was published in the Official Journal L345 of 31 December and took effect the same day. We recall that this regulation, which aims to replace the current system (and regulation) which came to an end on 31 December 2003, was adopted in the context of conciliation procedure when a compromise was finally reached between the Parliament and Council after months of wrangling and despite heated criticism - and the rejection of the compromise - by Austria (see EUROPE of 23 December, p.5, and 19 December, p.12).
The ecopoints system aims to restrict heavy goods traffic through Austria by attributing "points" for each lorry in relation to the level of NOx emissions. Each heavy vehicle has an ecopoint per unit of NOx emitted and must pay the total value of the ecopoints in order to be able to cross over Austrian territory. The regulation adopted on 22 December encourages the use of lorries that are more environmentally friendly by allowing heavy vehicles using less or up to 5 points to transit freely throughout Austrian territory. Inversely, heavy vehicles using over 8 points are banned from transit (except for vehicles registered in Greece or highly specialised vehicles). The traffic of interim categories of heavy vehicles - using 6, 7 or 8 points - is according to a quota system. The total annual volume of NOx emissions and the breakdown of ecopoints are managed by the European Commission which shares them out between Member Sates (the conciliation committee has agreed to annex an interinstitutional declaration on breakdown of ecopoints between acceding countries). For 2004, the points available are 6,593,487; for 2005 6,246,462 and for 2006 5,899,436 .
The regulation may "only" be renewed twice - until 31 December 2005 and until 31 December 2006 - unless the Eurovignette Directive on the tariff for using infrastructures is adopted by the end of the present regulation, that is, on 31 December 2004 (see EUROPE of 24 July).