"The role of the Commission in advancing the road pricing agenda cannot be underestimated", T&E Director Jos Dings stated at the Conference on fair and efficient road pricing organised by the European Commission on 5 Dec:
Road pricing is progressing because the list of its advantages is impressive. No wonder ever more countries in Europe are choosing for road user charging, and we are having a conference about its future.
The European Commission has gone back on a series of commitments to reduce the environmental impacts of road vehicles. T&E says the climbdown carries the fingerprints of lobbying by the automotive industry, but will not help Europe’s car makers in the long term.
EC plan for a 2020 competitive car and lorry industry omits key environmental promises.The Commission’s Cars 2020 Action Plan (1) for a competitive and sustainable automotive industry in Europe announced today fails to address key strategic challenges such as climate change. Sustainable transport campaigners, Transport & Environment (T&E), have identified important omissions from the plans. This follows earlier announcements this week that other key policies to reduce the environmental impact of vehicles are being shelved.
The Commission has given a hint of its forthcoming draft directive on weights and dimensions that will be published early next year. It says the guiding principle behind it will be fuel efficiency, and T&E has welcomed what is likely to be a boost for lorries that are safer and cleaner.
On 19 September, the European Voice published on its website an article where Mr Miroslav Ouzky MEP accuses T&E of blackmailing and intimidating him. Intimidation and blackmail are serious allegations, and the latter is even a criminal offence. Hence our wish to set the record straight.
In this blog post, T&E director, Jos Dings, explains why raising fuel taxes does make sense even in times of economic crisis and dispels the myth according to which a lower taxation on fuel would benefit society at large.
The decision by the EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas to allow so-called ‘megatrucks’ to cross EU borders raises doubts about whether the Commission takes its role as the guardian of EU treaties seriously.