The EU Commission adopted a legislative proposal for a directive amending Directive 1999/62/EC on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures (known as the Eurovignette Directive) in May 2017. The proposal was presented within the context of the Commission’s ‘Europe on the move’ package that sought to modernise mobility and transport and included several legislative proposals.
The objective of the Eurovignette proposal, which would substantially amend the existing legislation by extending the scope of vehicles covered, is to make progress in the application of the ‘polluter pays’ and ‘user pays’ principles. The Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) of the European Parliament, in charge of the file, adopted its report on 24 May 2018 and the Parliament adopted its first-reading position on 25 October 2018. After the 2019 European elections, the TRAN committee voted in favour of opening negotiations with the Council.
The Council, on its side, started discussions on the proposal at the end of 2017 and after a standstill of one year, resumed them in 2019. After several compromise proposals and improvements by the Croatian and German Presidencies, the Council approved its negotiating mandate on the proposal on 18 December 2020. Interinstitutional negotiations began at the end of January 2021 and are expected to be complicated.
Source: Briefing – Revision of the Eurovignette Directive – 11-03-2021