The need for a revision of the Eurovignette directive

Directive 1999/62/EC does not prohibit the transition from traditional road charges to km charging but puts some constraints on Member States wishing to do so. The objective of this paper therefore is to analyse the extent to which the current Directive should be amended to facilitate a shift to a scheme for km charging which is fair and cost-efficient. It is presumed that the necessary changes can be made within Directive 1999/62/EC and that a special Directive on km charging is not required. The current Directive already contains the necessary vehicle classification. In Annex I, it divides HGVs with GVW >12 tonnes into 15 categories for motor vehicles (according to GVW and number of axles) and 24 additional categories of vehicle combinations (articulated vehicles and vehicle trains). The environmental differentiation, however, should be based not only on Euro 0, Euro 1 and Euro 2, as in the current Directive, but also on future vehicle standards that have already been decided upon.

With relatively small changes and amendments, Directive 1999/62/EC could thus be turned into a Framework Directive for European km charging of HGVs.