| Author (Person) | Carstens, Karen |
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| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.10, No.7, 26.2.04 |
| Publication Date | 26/02/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Karen Carstens Date: 26/02/04 MEMBER states are close to reaching an agreement on the hotly contested 'eurovignette' directive on the charging of heavy goods vehicles on motorways, sources from the Irish EU presidency say. The directive, which pitted heavy transit countries at the heart of the Union, such as Austria, against those on the periphery, like Spain, is due to be discussed tomorrow (27 February) by EU countries' ambassadors. "The peripheral countries are concerned with keeping toll levels low and the main transit countries want to have the freedom to raise tolls to combat environmental damage caused by all the traffic they get," said a spokeswoman for the Irish presidency. The basic idea was to reach an agreement "whereby we inflict equivalent pain across the board", she said. Elements of a final package were due to emerge at the Coreper meeting, and the presidency was increasingly confident that an agreement was possible at the Transport Council meeting next month. Heads of government meeting at the European Council in Brussels last December requested an agreement by March, ahead of this year's Spring summit. The Irish presidency has made finalizing the eurovignette directive one of its four key priorities in the transport sector, along with concluding work on guidelines for Trans-European Transport Networks, completing the conciliation process on the 'second railway package' and establishing new supervisory and security structures for the Galileo satellite navigation project. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Mobility and Transport |
