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June 7, 2011
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- The European Parliament approved the new Directive Eurovignette III
- With today's vote - has denounced the IRU - the Eurovignette was simply transformed into a new heavy additional tax payable by EU citizens for any service road haulage, which will penalize the European economy and creating jobs and will not lead to environmental benefits
 The European Parliament today approved the proposal for a directive called Eurovignette III internalisation of external costs in road tolls on top of the load of heavy goods vehicles and the costs of air pollution and noise caused by the same truck. At the toll, that is the cost imposed to date for use of infrastructure, it can be added to an average of 4.3 euro cents (per vehicle / km) to cover the external costs generated by road transport, such as air pollution and the acoustic one.
- In addition to the Trans-European Networks (TEN-T), the Directive will cover the highways and will apply to vehicles over 3.5 tonnes.If a Member State deemed to grant exemptions from the media up to 12 tonnes will have to communicate the reasons for the European Commission.
- As a measure to promote the renewal of the fleet, the Directive stipulates that less polluting vehicles will be exempt from the costs of air pollution until 1 January 2014 for the class of Euro V emission and up to 1 gennaio.2018 for Euro Class VI. In addition, in sensitive areas and in mountainous areas of the external costs will be added an increase of up to 25% for the most polluting vehicles (from Euro 0 to Euro II) and, from 1 January 2015, this increase will be extended to the class Euro III .
- In addition, to encourage the decongestion of the busiest areas, the percentage of variation toll could reach up to 175% in congested areas, with higher rates in the five-peak and lowest rates for other periods. To enable transport companies to determine their costs and adjust their travel plans, the Commission will provide a list of fares and timetables of implementation across the EU.
- The legislation requires that, in turn, Member States undertake to invest at least 15% of total revenue derived from charges and infrastructure charges for external costs in the trans-European transport networks, while the remaining funds should be used to mitigate nuisance and to develop all modes of transport in a sustainable manner. To enhance transparency and public debate, MEPs included in the Directive, the obligation on Member States to inform the Commission periodically on the use of tariffs and charges that.
- The new directive has been criticized by the transport associations. According to the International Road Transport Union (IRU), the Directive adopted today Eurovignette simply transforms into a new heavy additional tax payable by EU citizens for any service road haulage, which will penalize the European economy and the creation of jobs and will not lead to environmental benefits. The International Association of road has pointed out, in fact, that the new text does not require the mandatory provision of new revenue in order to use them to effectively reduce the source of the externalities from road transport business."With today's vote - said the IRU - the European Parliament in fact failed to make" green "road transport does not make the allocation of revenues and Eurovignette only creating a new tax on road transport services which are already heavily taxed. " The IRU has therefore called on EU Member States, upon implementation of the Directive, to provide an appropriate target of these revenues at the national level in order to respond effectively to the objectives of the White Paper on EU Transport Policy.
- "At a time when the industry of road is heavily committed to making its services more environmentally friendly - said the president of the IRU Goods Transpor EU Liaison Committee, Alexander Sakkers - this new tax on road transport services introduced Eurovignette Directive will have the effect of preventing operators from investing and using the best technologies and techniques vital to increasing "green" road transport and to achieve the target reduction of CO2. ""The IRU - added Sakkers - calls on all Member States of the European Union to fully devote all the proceeds of this new tax burden for road transport projects in order to achieve the objectives of the White Paper on the new policy EU transport and road transport to be really green. "
- Even the Italian associations of road have expressed concerns about the content of the new European directive. Remembering not to challenge all the "polluter pays" principle, the National Association of Transportation Drivers (ANITA) criticized rather than "the unfairness of this measure that penalizes only the freight and other modes and types of transport ' . "This measure, in fact - said the association - will result in additional burden for the road transport when crossing the Alps forecast of an additional amount for congestion, which is not recoverable, will increase the present level of tolls more than 10% for emissions and more than 50% for the congestion in international transport. "
- According to Anita, "such an increase in the cost of road transport in the absence of a viable alternative to rail transport will have serious repercussions on the Italian economy, whereas major rail infrastructure such as the Brenner and the Turin / Lyon will be ready after 2025 '.
- In anticipation of today's vote, the president of Confartigianato Transport, Francesco Del Boca, yesterday stressed that "the resources of the largest tolls should be mandatory for the road transport sector with the aim of making road transport more sustainable and efficient , for example through green investments or in new technologies, particularly important for small and medium enterprises that are often not able to sustain themselves burdens imposed by technical and environmental regulations. " Recalling that the text adopted in Strasbourg instead allows Member States to decide whether to use the proceeds to reduce the impact of external costs with investments in road, Del Boca concluded that this translates into an "attempt to introduce a new additional tax on companies with the sole purpose of "make money" beyond the declared environmental reasons. "The chairman of Confartigianato Transport has stressed disagrees with the approach according to which no external cost falls on users of infrastructure, "trucking firm - noted - already suffering the additional costs (fuel, delivery delays, accidents ) arising from blocking traffic. "
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