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BackA number of complaints to the European Commission have resulted in the EU authority dealing with the charges levied on light private vehicles in individual EU Member States. The Commission informs in a Communication that currently seven Member States have put in place a vignette system for light private vehicles, including Austria, Slovenia and Hungary. Belgium is planning to introduce such a tolling system for light passenger vehicles; the Netherlands and Denmark are discussing the issue.
In its Communication, the Commission makes it clear that it prefers the distance-based toll systems as they were fairer and more efficient. The Commission also considers a time-based vignette system as long as weekly, monthly and annual vignettes were available. Apart from that, the daily rates of vignettes with different expiry periods should not differ too much, whereby the Commission alludes in particular to the Slovenian system: a weekly vignette costs on average EUR 2.14 per day, and is therefore 8.2 times more expensive than the annual vignette, which only costs EUR 0.26 per day. Compared to this, the costs for a weekly vignette in Austria is EUR 0.8/day and EUR 0.21/day for an annual vignette, hence the difference is significantly smaller. The Commission also compares the prices to the so-called Eurovignette Directive, which sets out requirements for charging heavy goods vehicles. Here, the maximum admissible quotient would be 7.3-fold.
The Commission emphasises at the end of the Communication that it was still at the discretion of each Member State to introduce a road charge; the type of the charge and how it was collected was also a matter for the respective EU States. Currently seven countries have put in place a vignette system for light vehicles; they are Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. At EUR 148.90 Hungary has the most expensive annual vignette, followed by Rumania at EUR 96 (light commercial vehicles carrying freight) and Slovenia at EUR 95.
Additional information:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/322&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Communication from the Commission:
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road/doc/com-2012-199.pdf
The Commission emphasises at the end of the Communication that it was still at the discretion of each Member State to introduce a road charge; the type of the charge and how it was collected was also a matter for the respective EU States. Currently seven countries have put in place a vignette system for light vehicles; they are Austria, Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. At EUR 148.90 Hungary has the most expensive annual vignette, followed by Rumania at EUR 96 (light commercial vehicles carrying freight) and Slovenia at EUR 95.
Additional information:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/322&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
Communication from the Commission:
http://ec.europa.eu/transport/road/doc/com-2012-199.pdf