Following today's adoption by the European Parliament of the new rules on road charging (revised Eurovignette Directive), please see a quote from Ciarán Cuffe MEP, Greens/EFA coordinator of the Transport and Tourism committee;
"Eurovignette could have been the perfect tool to reflect the societal and environmental costs of road transport. These costs (air and noise pollution, climate change, accidents and habitat damage and so on) amount to almost a trillion euro a year across the EU, with road transport the biggest culprit. In environmentally sensitive areas like the Alps, these costs are magnified because valleys tend to concentrate things like air and noise pollution. An ambitious Eurovignette proposal would have tackled the artificially low cost of road transport and ensure the societal and environmental costs are fairly reflected in road pricing.
"My colleague Anna Deparnay-Grunenberg's proposed amendments to this file would have allowed for mark-ups in these areas so that local communities in these areas could institute such a fair road pricing model. Thousands of trucks pass through these precious ecosystems every day – fair pricing and a shift to more sustainable modes like rail is the fairest solution. I'm disappointed the European Parliament did not support these changes."
