EU Reviving Road Tolls

According to EuroActiv, a vote in the European Parliament's transport committee today is expected to restart talks on road charging for trucks in Europe. It would allow countries to charge for the pollution and congestion they cause, with the aim of pushing freight on to less-polluting rail and waterways transport.

The transport committee will be voting on a package of amendments to the Eurovignette Directive, which is the proposed rules on how EU states could charge for road use. The EU Commission proposed the changes last July, but even after this vote real progress is not expected before the next Parliament takes office in the autumn. Even then, the proposals are voluntary, the first time that an EU directives has not been required to be implemented into national legislation within a set period.

There is more discussion of the issues surrounding the Directive in the EuroActiv article, which is here.


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