Brussels, 02/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 2 October, the European Commission decided to send Slovenia a letter of formal notice to stop discriminatory treatment of occasional users on Slovenian toll roads. The letter of formal notice is the first stage of the infringement procedure.
By introducing only annual and half-year vignettes for passenger cars and annual vignettes for motorcycles, New Slovenian legislation introduces discrimination between nationals from other states who only occasionally use the motorway network and Slovenian nationals
Under European law any discrimination on the grounds of nationality are prohibited. The EU legal framework for road charging does not cover passenger cars or motorcycles and member states can set up their own systems of tolling. The EU legal framework for road charging does not cover passenger cars or motorcycles and member states can set up their own systems of tolling. They are, however, required to respect general principles enshrined in the EC Treaty. Since 1996, the European Commission has taken the same position vis-à-vis other member states which introduced similar vignette systems, such as Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania. In taking this step, the Commission is also acting upon complaints it has received from European tourist organisations. (L.C./transl.rt)