MEPs divided over congestion charges for trucks

"Including external costs, such as air pollution, noise or congestion, in the price of transport must not lead to an extra burden on the European road transport sector. Greening transport is a positive step towards sustainable mobility, provided that revenues from charges are reinvested in the road transport sector," said EPP-ED  spokeswoman Corien Wortmann-Kool. 

But the EPP-ED group rejected congestion charging for trucks and private cars. As the transport committee voted in favour of a general European congestion charge, the group voted against the proposal as a whole. 

"A new congestion charge does not belong in this proposal. There are already plenty of opportunities for member states to charge congestion in urban areas. The aim of this proposal is greening transport. A congestion charge has limited environmental effect, but hampers economic growth," Wortmann-Kool added.

The International Road Transport Union (IRU) expressed its surprise that the Parliament had backed the imposition of extra charges on the industry given the current economic context. Furthermore, the committee's "foggy message" on the inclusion of congestion as a chargeable external cost "opens the road to any possible solution for congestion as an external cost," said Marc Billet of the IRU's EU delegation, expressin his hope that the EPP-ED Group's position on the issue would gain more support before the Parliament's plenary vote. 

European business organisations Eurochambres  and EuroCommerce,  and UEAPME's transport forum, welcomed the vote as "a step in the right direction" because MEPs rejected a number of "questionable and over-complicated proposals".

Meanwhile, they remain concerned about the likely economic impact of the inclusion of congestion charges on European businesses operations, in particular for SMEs, "who depend on transport as a crucial link for their economic activities". 

The European rail sector argued that should the legislation fail to take into account CO2 emissions and should it complicate the introduction of congestion charges for trucks, as voted for by the MEPs, "the proposed legislation will only have a limited impact on greening Europe's transport sector". Thus the sector sees "room for improvement" before the plenary vote.

"The rail sector also believes that the polluter should pay and not be reimbursed. Revenues should therefore be earmarked for investments in sustainable transport to offset negative externalities rather than being reinvested in road infrastructure," according to a rail industry press statement. 

Transport & Environment (T&E), an NGO, deplored the fact that MEPs "voted to water down the Commission proposal" regarding the inclusion of congestion as a chargeable external cost by adding a clause that would only permit member states to charge lorries for congestion if cars were also subject to such charges. Regarding air pollution and noise, T&E lamented that MEPs did not manage to change "the artificially low caps on charges put forward in the Commission proposal". 

The International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE) stated that "as doctors, we see victims of traffic accidents, and as scientists, we are aware of the many silent effects on health caused by noise and air pollution." ISDE President Hanns Moshammer argued that "health costs due to transport must be borne by those who cause them," adding that health organisations will deliver an open letter to the Parliament plenary hoping that their vote "will show more courage and commitment".