The EU’s rail and road haulage sectors should function in equal conditions. To this end, the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER) has called the Member States to introduce tolling and external-cost charging on all major roads. This move will assist to decarbonise transport in the EU by shifting to low-emission modes including rail.
CER issued a policy statement due to a preliminary decision taken by the Council last week on the Eurovignette Directive revision that would allow retaining the scheme of time-based charging. “This would hinder Europe’s efforts to clean up and decarbonise transport with a shift to low-carbon modes like rail,” the Community argues. According to it, such a decision contradicts with the green policy of the EU and the Member States as well as to the user-pays principle, which requires charging at least marginal cost, implying distance-based charging.
In its statement, CER notes that, according to the EU law basement, the railway operators pay distance-based charges for using infrastructure. This user-pays principle acts everywhere in the EU. As for the road haulage sector, this approach works only partially – on just 25 per cent of major roads. “Distance-based charging on all major roads should naturally be implemented to comply with the very same principle,” CER specifies.