Road transport: ecopoints for heavy vehicles travelling through Austria

The committee adopted the report by Hannes SWOBODA (PES, A) which rejected the proposal under the codecision procedure (1st reading), on the grounds that it would endanger the environmentally sensitive Alpine region and allow too many transit journeys by heavy lorries. The report asked the Commission to assess the impact of the ecopoints system on competition between Member States and to put forward a coherent transport strategy for the whole Alpine region from 2004 onwards which would take due account of both transport and environmental requirements. It also asked the Commission to retain an upper ceiling on the number of transit journeys until the ecopoints system expired at the end of 2003, while at the same time ensuring that the number of journeys was calculated correctly, and to make provision for a more appropriate system of sanctions for cases where the upper ceiling was exceeded. �