Press Release: Council adopts first-reading position on ‘Eurovignette’ directive, Brussels, 14 February 2011

The Council adopted today (14.2.2011) its first-reading position on a draft directive amending the 1999 directive on road use charges for heavy goods vehicles ('Eurovignette'). The text will now be sent to the European Parliament for a second reading. The aim of the new draft framework legislation is to reduce pollution from road freight transport and to make traffic more fluent by levying tolls that factor in the cost of air and
noise pollution due to traffic (so-called external costs) and help avoid road congestion. To this end, the draft directive, as set out in the Council's position, provides that member states may apply a new 'external cost charge' on lorries, complementing the already existing infrastructure charge designed to recover the costs for construction, operation, maintenance and development of road infrastructure.