S&Ds want fairer and greener charge road users
Date
25 Oct 2018
Sections
Transport
The high impact of road transport on the environment as well as the degradation of road infrastructure have a cost for society.
The current legislation to charge road users, the so-called Eurovignette, is outdated and so far has not been an incentive to reduce CO2 emissions from the road transport sector. Today the European Parliament backed the proposal of S&D MEP Christine Revault d’Allonnes-Bonnefoy to move towards the full application of “user pays” and “polluter pays” principles on the Trans-European road transport network.
The S&D Group is strongly committed to a clean and efficient transport as a crucial pillar for a sustainable society. The S&Ds welcome the adoption of the report containing many ambitious measures to include all vehicle in the scope of the directive, to reduce toll for cleaner vehicles and to ban discriminatory charging scheme for road user in Europe.
The S&D welcomes the proposal aiming at reducing the social and territorial impact of tolls: frequent users having to pay a toll on a daily basis to go to their work will now be able to benefit from discount compare to occasional user.
Christine Revault d’Allonnes-Bonnefoy said:
“The proposal is a turning point to achieve the White Transport paper’s objective to move towards the full application of ‘user pays’ and ‘polluter pays’ principles. It would phase out Eurovignettes for heavy vehicles and light duty vehicles.
“Moreover, from 2021 external cost charges based on EURO standards will be mandatory for heavy vehicles on the Trans-European road transportnetwork and from 2026 for light vehicles. This is a strong message from the European Parliament to reduce emissions from the road transport sector.
“Last but not least the proposal contains a strong social dimension and gives the possibility to reduce the cost of tolls for frequent that have no other the choice but to use their car to go their work place.”
S&D spokesperson on transport, Ismail Ertug MEP, said:
“The proposal we put forward wants to earnmark revenues to make sure that they are invested in keeping an up-to-date and safe road network and infrastructure (such as tunnels or bridges) in Europe. This will contribute to the safety of all travellers and to lower maintenance costs for vehicle owners.
“In fact, the users would also be the main beneficiaries, since the lack of proper maintenance leads to more accidents, pollution, noise and also more vehicle operating costs.”