Press Release: Road charging: Heavy lorries to pay for costs of air and noise pollution

EU Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas welcomed the vote by European Parliament , giving its final approval to proposals for new EU rules to allow Member States to charge heavy lorries, not only for the costs of infrastructure which is currently the case, but also to levy an additional charge to cover the cost or air and noise pollution.

The revision of the current "Eurovignette Directive" will also enable Member States to better manage problems of congestion, with a new flexibility to vary the charge for heavy lorries (by up to 175%) at different times of the day. Importantly the vote also provides for "earmarking" so new charging revenues ar set aside for investment to improve transport infrastructure (TEN-T) projects.