In mid-October, EU Ministers voted in favour of new EU rules to allow Member States to charge heavy lorries, not only for the costs of the infrastructure which is currently the case, but also to levy an additional charge to cover the cost of air and noise pollution. The proposal to revise the current “Eurovignette Directive” will enable Member States to better manage problems of congestion, with a new flexibility to differentiate the charges applied to heavy lorries at different periods of the day.
Current situation
The 1999 “Eurovignette” Directive on charging heavy goods vehicles for the use of infrastructure sets an EU framework for the levying of road charges on heavy goods. The Directive authorises, but does not oblige, Member States to levy “user charges” (time-based charges, for example per day, per week, per year) or distance-based charges per kilometre on lorries above 3.5 tonnes – small lorries – provided that it does not result in any discrimination and that the charges are set at a level which does not exceed the recovery of costs of which are strictly necessary to maintain and replace the road infrastructure. The current “Eurovignette Directive” prohibits the recovery of other costs, for example, the so-called external costs such as air pollution and noise costs currently borne by society at large and tax payers.
What are the proposals?
During the recent debates on the revision of the “Eurovignette Directive”, the European transport ministers discussed about giving the option to charge heavy lorries to cover the costs of air and noise pollution from traffic emissions on road tolls paid by lorries, and not only the cost of infrastructure. This air and noise pollution charge will have to be calculated according to a common method and respect caps defined in the Directive to avoid abusive practices. The new Directive enables a wider differentiation of toll rates at constant revenue so member states can better manage traffic and reduce congestion. In practice, member states will be able to choose to vary the tolls according to congestion levels and charge more at peak periods provided that lower tariffs are applied during off-peak periods. The new proposals encourage the revenue from the additional charges to be used to finance investments into making transport more sustainable such as research and development into clean vehicle technologies and construction of alternative transport infrastructure. Moreover, the revision aims at extending the scope of the EU “Eurovignette Directive” so that not only the TEN-T network (as is currently the case) but also all motorways across Europe are included.
Railway sector expresses discontent
The European rail industry welcomes the agreement reached by European transport ministers to permit the charging of some of the internalisation of external costs through the revision of the “Eurovignette Directive” on the charging of heavy good vehicles. The agreement means the issue can now move forward after having been blocked in the European Council for the past 18 months. The rail sector is grateful to the Belgian Presidency for the commitment it has shown in seeking to reach a political agreement amongst the EU member states. “We have long been calling for a fair financial environment for all modes of transport to make rail able to compete and develop. This is a step in the right direction but there is still way to go to create a fully non-discriminatory regulatory framework”, Hendrik Abma, EIM’s Executive Director, said. However, while the agreement is a step in the right direction, it is not as strong as it could have been, and some of the major points in the original European Commission’s proposal and the first reading in the European Parliament have not been adopted. In particular, the European rail representative associations, CER, EIM and UNIFE, regret the decision to remove separate charges for congestion, which is responsible for 40% of all external costs. Also, the failure to agree that the earmarking of revenues raised should be allocated specifically for spending on sustainable transport and the decision to let member states decide on whether they wish to apply charges to vehicles between 3.5 and 12 tonnes in weight have also been blamed by the associations representing the European railway sector.
“It is appropriate that this agreement was reached the day that the final breakthrough occurred in the new Gotthard Tunnel under the Alps. This rail tunnel is funded using the proceeds of the Swiss Heavy Vehicle Fee – clearly demonstrating the benefits that can be achieved through the proper charging for the external effects of road freight. The Swiss people chose to introduce such a system over a decade ago, and they have had no cause to regret it. The EU governments need to show similar vision and political bravery”, declared CER Executive Director Johannes Ludewig. “The revision of the Eurovignette directive comes at crucial moment. The Transport White Paper, expected to be released at the end of the year, should support the measures as described in the Eurovignette directive”, declared Michael Clausecker, UNIFE Director-General.
by Elena Ilie
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