Road transport: charging of heavy goods vehicles and infrastructures fees

The Commission can accept all the amendments adopted by the European Parliament in second reading. They are the result of a compromise package agreed between the European Parliament and the Council with a view to the adoption of the Directive in second reading.

These amendments favour the approach taken by the Commission in its proposal and address the Commission’s concerns on geographical scope and external costs. More specifically:

• on geographical scope : these amendments establish rules for the treatment of different types of roads within the directive. TENs are subject to the rules of the directive; Member States must inform the Commission of tolls on other main roads; and secondary roads are not subject to any rules in the directive;
• on external costs: these amendments make statements about the importance of internalising external costs and require the Commission to undertake a modelling exercise and impact assessment of the internalisation of external costs within two years of the directive’s entry into force;
• on toll variation: this amendment allows toll variation according to NOx and PM emissions, and makes toll variation according to emissions obligatory as from 2010;
• on the type of vehicle: these amendments remove reference to “heavy” in heavy goods vehicles, as the scope of the directive has changed to include vehicles of between 3.5t and 12t, rather than just those above 12t, as in directive 1999/62;
• on urban charges: these amendments clarify that urban regulatory charges are not subject to any of the rules in the directive and so Member States are free to levy such charges in accordance with the rules of the Treaty.

Other amendments make minor changes to other parts of the text, dealing with compensation, hypothecation, eurovignette maximum rates and non discrimination.