Eurovignette, Taxes and Charges
The 2001 White Paper “European Transport Policy for 2010: Time to decide” pointed out that “railways were unable to face up to competition from other modes. Consequently, market share in passenger and freight transport fell dramatically on account of the much larger increases in private car and air transport.”
Since then, rail freight’s market share has been growing constantly. This is particularly the case in the Member States where liberalisation has been effectively implemented. Also, in the Central and Eastern European countries, the decrease in rail market share came to an end in 2005/2006.
However, in addition to intra-modal measures for rail transport, a level-playing between the different modes is highly needed. Today, inter-modal competition is still hindered by an unequal taxation and infrastructure charging.
Railway operators pay infrastructure charges and a large number of taxes which are not charged equally to other modes of transport. In July 2008, the European Commission adopted the Greening of Transport Package, which includes a proposal to revise the Eurovignette Directive on charges for heavy-goods vehicles. This marks an important milestone in the drive to internalise the external costs of road transport, which will put the “polluter pays” principle into practice.
However, the exclusion of CO2 emissions is contradictory to EU objectives such as the effort-sharing decision of the Climate Change Package of January 2008, which sets binding targets for reducing CO2 emissions in sectors such as transport. UNIFE has been following the debate at the European Parliament and Council closely during the past months and regrets that no agreement could be reached so far.
Therefore, in order to allow for fair competition between different modes of transport, UNIFE supports an ambitious framework for the internalisation of external road costs according to the “polluter-pays-principle” that would remove the current inequalities between the different modes of transport
For more information, please contact:
Virginie Poirier
Economics Advisor
+32 2 642 23 29
UNIFE Links
To access UNIFE's article "InteGrail Project successfully concluded" (06.03.2009) please click here
To access UNIFE's article "Eurovignette Directive on th right track" (11.02.2009) please click here
To access UNIFE's joint position paper on the revision of the Eurovignette Directive (19.01.2009) please click here
To access UNIFE, CER and EIM joint position Paper on Eurovignette Directive (24.07.2008) please click here
To access Unife Background Paper on Eurovignette Directive please click here
External Links
To access European Commission Trans-European Transport Network Executive Agency please click here
To access Directive on the interoprability of the rail system within the Community please click here
To access technical specifications for interoperability please click here
To access Regulation on the European Railway Agency please click here
group
