Transport Council: No Agreement on Road Charging Directive

Publication date: 09 March 2004

In its meeting today in Brussels, the Council of Transport Ministers failed to reach an agreement on the proposal (COM(2003) 448 - COD(2003) 0175) for a Directive amending Directive 1999/62/EC on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures ("Eurovignette").

com2003_0448_road_charging.pdf (387 KB)

The main obstacle to reaching agreement concerned the use of proceeds generated by road tolls. United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and France  want to be able to use the proceeds as they please. Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and Greece back the Commission's approach, which argues that the charging of road use is not being put in place to generate additional state revenues but  to reduce congestion and negative environmental impacts.

Next steps:
Discussions will now continue within the Council's working groups to find a compromise on this issue for the next Transport Council in June. The Parliament is due to vote on the road charging directive during its plenary session mid April.

Related News Item:
Draft Road Charging Directive published
(23 July 2003)