Response to White Paper on fair payment for infrastructure use

This White Paper, however, covered only a part of the wider debate on the internalisation external costs in transport. Many of the comments T&E has on the content of the White Paper need to placed within this wider context and so this report elaborates not merely T&E’s comments on the White Paper but also addresses the wider debate on internalisation.

The debate has come a long way since T&E published the report “Getting the Prices Right” in 1993. This report called for transport prices to more accurately reflect the costs transport imposed on society as a whole. Whilst the international community have long promoted thepolluter pays principle, discussions on how best to translate this principle into the field of transport pricing had not always been high on the political agenda. The publication of Getting the Prices Right helped to change this, and the debate surrounding the internalisation of external costs has lead to both a Green and White Paper from the Commission.