Brussels, 19/10/2007 (Agence Europe): On Wednesday 17 October, European Commission took legal action against several Member States for their failure to observe the legislation on social rules and rules relating to tolls in the road transport sector.
Following a reasoned opinion sent to Denmark in July 2006, the Commission has decided to bring Copenhagen before the Court of Justice for its failure to transpose European legislation on electronic toll services. A directive of April 2005 aims to ensure the interoperability of all electronic toll systems and demands that all new systems installed as of 1 January 2007 use at least one of the existing technologies. Today, the toll systems used in the various Member States are not mutually compatible. As a result, road hauliers whose activity covers several countries must equip their vehicles with several on-board units, depending on the national toll systems used. Once the European electronic tolls system is operational, it will allow operators to cover the whole of Europe with a single on-board toll system, which will be compatible with all European toll systems. The cut-off date for the transposition of the directive was 20 November 2005. The Danish authorities, however, have an additional three months to adopt the necessary legislative provisions, or the Commission will refer the matter to the European Court of Justice.
The Commission has also brought a complaint against Spain, for its infringements of the Eurovignette directive, having granted its transporters a discount of up to 50% on motorway tolls. The discounts are granted to heavy goods vehicles which regularly use the Spanish motorways, a system favouring mainly Spanish transporters, which, in the view of Commission, is a violation of the principle of non-discrimination. Like Denmark, Spain has three months to come into line with EU rules (the tolls must be charged in accordance with the costs for the construction, operation and development of the infrastructure network in question; the Member States may vary the rate of tolls only according to the emissions classes of vehicles and according to the time of day; discounts for regular users may not exceed actual administrative cost savings and may under no circumstances exceed 13%).
The Commission has also taken Greece before the Court of Justice for its failure to properly introduce the system of the digital tachograph. Since 1 May 2006, the digital tachograph is a requirement on all new heavy goods vehicles and buses in the EU, in line with regulation 561/2006 on the harmonisation of certain provisions under social legislation in the field of road transport. It is the responsibility of the Member States to issue the tachograph cards to drivers, businesses, workshops and inspectors. However, despite several warnings from the Commission, Greece has not yet established its national authority with responsibility for issuing the cards or its system for the secure production and distribution of the tachograph cards. Drivers resident in Greece cannot, therefore, obtain these cards and transport companies established in this country cannot use digital tachographs. As a result, Greek transport companies may not travel to other EU countries with vehicles registered after 1 May 2006.
Lastly, the Commission has decided to send eight reasoned opinions for failure to communicate national transposition measures for directive 2006/22/EC concerning minimum conditions to be observed for the implementation of new rules in the sector regarding rest times and driving times, and the introduction of digital tachographs (EUROPE 9378). The reasoned opinions have been sent to Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia and the United Kingdom. (A.By.)