Issue Brief No. 03/2008

Sustainable Transport: EU Commission Plans ‘Green Toll’ for Trucks

The News

On 11 March, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a report on “the greening of transport” drafted by Dr Georg Jarzembowski (EPP-ED, DE). The law requests the European Commission to “submit a comprehensive plan for calculating and charging external costs and assessing their impact on the basis of a comprehensible model”. MEPs had particularly criticised the Commission for having envisaged an internalisation of external costs only for heavy goods road vehicles. Other modes of transport, however, had been neglected, which the EP considers as unacceptable.

The Background

For years the European Commission had been planning to introduce a standardized method to calculate the external costs of traffic, including the costs of noise, pollution and traffic jams. According to the Commission, the intensive use of the European road network not only affects the quality of road infrastructure but has also negative repercussions for human health and the environment. These unwanted side-effects of traffic, thus, cause costs which are not covered by the market price for the use of the European road network. Eventually, the costs have to be met by the European taxpayer. In the future, the Commission therefore wants to apply the “polluter pays principle”, shifting the costs for negative external effects from society directly to the actual polluter.

Until now, no coherent method to calculate the internalisation of external costs has been developed. Parliament therefore urges the Commission to present such a method by the end of this summer. European industrial associations, on the other hand, unanimously reject the plans which are now being discussed. They fear massive economic repercussions for the logistics and transport sector and estimate that the price for a lorry drive on the motorway might increase up tp 65 eurocent per kilometre.

The Milestones

After the vote of the EP from 11 March, the Commission is now requested to draft and put forward a coherent model for the internalisation of external costs for all modes of transport.

Last Update: 13 March 2009