CER welcomes vote on road vehicle charging

Today, the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) has voted on the revision of the 1999/62/EC Directive on the charging of road vehicles, to amend the European Commission's proposal of 31 May 2017.

The Committee approved the vast majority of compromise amendments negotiated by the rapporteur Christine Revault (FR, S&D) and the shadow rapporteurs of the other political groups. The rapporteur has also received the mandate to kick off trilogue discussions with the Council.

CER generally welcomes today’s vote, since it represents a good development of the Commission proposal towards wider application of the user- and polluter-pays principles. On user-pays, while certain discounts and reductions are debatable, road charging for freight transport would be made more consistent by including goods vans. On polluter-pays, the amendments voted by TRAN, notably the removal of exemptions and the introduction of minimum charging values, would not only help protect the environment but also lead to improved fairness regarding competition of road transport with cleaner modes such as rail.

CER Executive Director Libor Lochman said: “This is a much needed step towards the clean mobility that European citizens expect. With this vote, the Parliament also indicates a strong will to redress current imbalances between road and rail. The railway sector now counts on the Council to quickly reach an agreement within their Working Group to allow sufficient time for trilogue discussions before the next European elections.”