Brussels, 16/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 16 January, the European Commission published a compilation of existing studies on external costs in the transport sector. This handbook will be one of the elements informing the preparation of a communication on the internalisation of external costs for all modes of transport and a proposal to revise the directive on the charging of heavy goods vehicles (Eurovignette), due in June of this year (see EUROPE 9363).
The handbook, which was compiled by several transport research institutes (CE Delft of the Netherlands, the University of Gdansk, INFRAS and ISI of Germany), assembles best practice in calculating the external costs generated by transport activities (pollution-, congestion-, even accident-related costs) and provides examples of unit values per travelled distance according to typical traffic situations (for instance, air pollution cost of a lorry in an urban area). According to a Commission press release, the handbook concentrates on air pollution, noise, climate change, congestion and accidents in road transport which constitutes the overwhelming share of transport external costs. Consequently, the taxation scenarios presented in the handbook are largely based on these factors. The publication also demonstrates, the Commission says, that external costs depend to a large extent on parameters like vehicle characteristics (EURO standards), location (urban or interurban) and the period of time (peak, off-peak and night time). In parallel, the Commission organised a public consultation exercise which ran throughout all of last year. The results will be published on 31 January at a High Level stakeholders' conference. The handbook is available at: http: //ec.europa.eu/transport/road/policy/index_en.htm (A.By.)