The European Commission has today given Portugal two months to report on the transposition of the common rules on motorway user charges. If this doesn’t happen, the case will go to court, explain reports. At stake is the Eurovignette Directive, which Portugal and seven other member states have as yet failed to adopt. This directive establishes common rules for imposing distance-based charges (tolls) and time-based user charges (vignettes), allowing member states to recover infrastructure costs (construction, operation, maintenance) through tolls and vignettes. The directive also obliges member states to include the environmental costs of air pollution in their charging systems, in order to establish charges based on the CO2 emissions of vehicles, with the aim of reducing emissions and encouraging the use of less polluting heavy goods vehicles.
Brussels gives Portugal two months to adopt ‘common rules’ on motorway tolls
Potentially, a new system on motorways could 'push' diesel and petrol vehicles onto national roads
