# EUR-Lex - 52012DC0474 - EN

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# 52012DC0474

**COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION Implementation of the European Electronic Toll Service /* COM/2012/0474 final */**

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COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION

Implementation of the European Electronic
Toll Service

(Text with EEA relevance)

1.           Introduction

Directive 2004/52/EC aims to achieve
interoperability of the electronic road toll systems in the European Union[1]. It foresees the setting-up of
a European Electronic Toll Service (EETS), complementary to the national
electronic toll services of the Member States.

Two main stakeholders are concerned:

·
Toll chargers, which operate either on behalf of
the Member State or in the framework of a concession contract with the Member State, manage the infrastructure and levy the tolls for the circulation of vehicles
on the network they manage.

·
European Electronic Toll Service providers (EETS
providers), supplying motorists or road hauliers with the necessary equipment and
services to access all EU tolled infrastructures and ensuring the payment to
the toll chargers of the fees due for the use of their network.

Article 3(4) of the Directive provides that
Member States having electronic road toll systems would ensure that operators
offer the European Electronic Toll Service to heavy goods vehicles at the
latest three years after the entry into force of the decision defining EETS and
to all other categories of vehicle at the latest five years after.

Commission Decision 2009/750/EC defining
the European Electronic Toll Service entered into force on 8 October 2009[2] upon its notification to the
Member States. This implementing decision establishes the essential requirements
of this service valid over the entire EU and sets the mandatory standards,
technical specifications and operational rules. The key obligations include the
following:

(1)
Member States have to keep national electronic
registers of their tolled networks, toll chargers and toll service providers
they deemed eligible for registration, and make them electronically accessible
to the public. They shall also set up a Conciliation Body in charge of
facilitating the contractual negotiations between toll chargers and EETS providers.

(2)
Toll chargers must set their electronic road
toll systems in conformity with the technical standards referred to in the
legislation and make public their contracting conditions; they must accept any
registered EETS provider on a non-discriminatory basis.

(3)
EETS providers have to be registered in a Member State where they are established. They are to reach full European coverage of all
the road infrastructures tolled electronically within 24 months of their
registration. EETS providers are in competition: every road user is free to
contract with the provider of his/her choice.

Article 21 of Decision 2009/750/EC requires
the Commission to draw up a report on the state of advancement of EETS
deployment. The present communication, after putting the EETS in the broader
context of European transport policy, presents the progress achieved in its
implementation and gives the Commission’s assessment of the next steps to be
taken for making the EETS operational.

2.           European Transport Policy context

An efficient internal market is necessary
to economic growth and prosperity, allowing for smooth, swift and safe mobility
of goods and persons across the Union. It requires well developed, maintained
and efficiently managed infrastructures.

As a way to facilitate the financing and
management of road infrastructures, the European Transport Policy has
constantly promoted the “user pays” and “polluter pays” principles. Tolls, that
is road use charging based on travelled distance, the type of vehicles
(e.g. according to their environmental performance and impact on wear and
tear) and/or even time (e.g. moment in the day) constitute a fair and efficient
way to implement these principles. They offer an even-handed way to pay for
mobility and send the right price signals to road users. In other words they
can raise the revenue needed to maintain and develop the road infrastructure,
manage the transport demand (e.g. reduce peak time, traffic or influence
transport choices) or encourage recourse to cleaner vehicles.

Tolls are increasingly used. Twenty-two
Member States levy road use charges on heavy goods vehicles on certain part of
their network and twelve Member States on private light vehicles. The charged
roads in the EU represent a total length of about 72.000 kilometres of which
60 % is equipped with electronic toll systems and 40 % is covered by
vignette systems. Today more than 20 million road users, motorists or road
hauliers, are subscribers to electronic road toll systems.

Ensuring the full European interoperability
of electronic road tolling technologies will create economies of scale and
reduce the costs of toll collection equipment. The European Electronic Toll
Service will ease the payment of road use charges by cross-border users,
including the occasional users[3].
Users will more readily accept to pay for using roads if the payment means are
interoperable at European level.

In its 2011 White Paper “Roadmap to a
Single European Transport Area” the Commission has outlined possible measures to
accelerate the development and the harmonisation of road use charging. It
stressed that the European Electronic Toll Service can be instrumental in the
promotion of road charging strategies that contribute to a sustainable
transport system and in facilitating road charging acceptance by users.

Similarly on the occasion of the recent amendment
of the “Eurovignette” Directive on the charging of heavy goods vehicles[4], the European Parliament and
the Council have asked the Commission to "monitor progress made [in the
framework of the Directive] to implement within the agreed dates a genuine
European Electronic Toll Service" and "to promote cooperation between
Member States that may prove necessary to ensure the interoperability of
electronic toll collection systems at European level."

In particular, "where a Member State collects tolls or user charges exclusively by means of a system that requires
the use of a vehicle on-board unit, it shall ensure that appropriate on-board
units compliant with the requirements of Directive 2004/52/EC [...] can be
obtained by all users under reasonable administrative and economic arrangements"[5].

3.           Progress Achieved

The progress achieved in the advancement of
EETS deployment is disappointing. Despite the adoption of
Decision 2009/750/EC which sets out the necessary technical specifications
and requirements as well as contractual rules relating to EETS provision,
efforts of the European Commission[6]
and the maturity of tolling technologies, the European Electronic Toll Service
is not yet a reality in everyday life of road users. Not all Member States and stakeholders have demonstrated the full commitment necessary to finalise the regulatory
and operational context of the service at their level. Until 2009, most Member
States having introduced national or local electronic toll systems did so
without paying due attention to the future European dimension of this service
with a view to respect the timetable set out in the Directive. This failure to
implement EETS and to do it in the foreseen timescale is not due to technical
reasons. It is not more complicated technically to implement pan-European
interoperability of electronic road toll systems than pan-European roaming of
mobile phones or worldwide interoperability of credit cards.

Some stakeholders have put forward a number
of possible explanations for the above-mentioned delays but most of them are
not justified anymore or relate to problems for which solutions exist:

–
It is suggested that one problem would be that the
European legislation defines only a framework for EETS. This argument does not
entirely hold true as the legislation sets up a clear set of the necessary
rules and obligations. In conformity with its policy of keeping the service
markets opened to competition where possible, the Commission Decision leaves the
delivery of the service to market decisions, essentially the emergence of EETS
Providers.

–
It has also been suggested that the EETS is not
interesting from a commercial point of view. However, it is premature to jump
to conclusions and there is no doubt that demand exists:

·
Currently 25% of road freight transport is
cross-border, and the figure is expected to rise to 30% by 2030. The interest
of the EETS for service providers will therefore get even stronger. In
addition, professional associations of transporters, at national and European
levels, have repeatedly expressed their strong demand for a pan-European
interoperable electronic toll system, clearly a call for an EETS.

·
About ten organisations have clearly expressed
their intention to seek registration as EETS Providers and recently established
a European professional association[7] (AETIS). Although as of today,
no EETS Provider has been officially registered, according to information
received, at least one prospective EETS Provider has approached its
national authorities to seek registration and was turned down because the legal
and administrative framework was not ready.

·
The on-going development or extension of road
charging schemes in the EU will create new market opportunities for EETS
providers. Four Member States[8]
have planned to implement new nation-wide tolling scheme in the next three
years and extension of existing tolling arrangements are underway in several
Member States. In this respect, the White Paper on the Single European
Transport Area sets forth a number of actions which will further promote the
deployment of road use charging[9].

–
EETS introduction would also be hampered by the
long life cycles of the existing national systems for which adapting to EETS
before obsolescence is an additional cost. However this argument does not seem
to hold true any longer. Most systems currently in place date from the
mid-1990s and are nearing technological obsolescence. Moreover the legislator
when adopting Directive 2004/52/EC took a clear view that the investments
needed to migrate towards fully interoperable systems should be done, even if a
certain degree of flexibility was left as to the sharing of the burden between
the stakeholders of the expenditures necessary to finance the investments required.
For instance costs or part of the costs of investments can be financed by the
introduction of new toll rates. In other words all the road users subject to
toll, and not only the EETS users, could participate financially in these
investments since the costs related to EETS can qualify as permissible
chargeable infrastructure costs under Directive 1999/62/EC (the
Eurovignette Directive).

In spite of the
delays, a number of developments have taken place:

–
Member States have set up their national electronic
register listing the tolled road infrastructures falling under the scope of
Directive 2004/52/EC within their territory. The Toll Chargers have published their
EETS Domain Statements which set the general conditions for delivering
EETS on their infrastructures and constitute the basis for the contractual
relationships between toll chargers and EETS providers.

–
A number of national authorities responsible for
road electronic fee collection have set up an informal group, the so-called
Stockholm Group[10],
where they actively cooperate with a view to the deployment of the European
Electronic Toll Service and the exchange of best practices. This group also
cooperates with AETIS7.

–
European Standards Organisations have decisively
progressed in the fields of Electronic Fee Collection and EETS standardisation,
also for satellite-based toll systems. Test procedures for mobile and fixed
equipment[11]
and an important standard[12]
relative to the exchange of information between service providers and toll
chargers in satellite-based tolling systems, including enforcement, have been
adopted.

–
The Commission has published in 2010 the “Guide
for the application of Directive 2004/52/EC of the European Parliament and
of the Council and of Commission Decision 2009/750/EC” [13] as a reference manual for
professional stakeholders directly or indirectly concerned by the implementation
of the European Electronic Toll Service.

–
The Commission, after a consultation of all the
stakeholders involved, is currently preparing a Guidance Note on the
interpretation of concepts referred to in Annex I of
Decision 2009/750/EC. This note, to be issued shortly, provides guidance
on how conciliation bodies should ensure that the contractual conditions to
access the network of toll chargers remain fair, reasonable and
non-discriminatory. It also clarifies possible models for sharing charges and
remunerations between professional stakeholders. Lastly it addresses EETS
implementation issues, such as the costs for assessing interoperability and
carrying out “suitability for use” tests.

–
A Coordination Group of the bodies entitled to
certify the “conformity to specifications” or “suitability for use” of EETS
equipment has been set up in compliance with Article 18 of Decision
2009/750/EC. This Group will develop guidance documents to be submitted for
approval to the Toll Committee which will set common procedures for carrying
"suitability for use" tests. Fourteen certification bodies from six
Member States are interested in being formally notified to the Commission.

–
Professional stakeholders are becoming
increasingly aware of their respective rights and obligations[14]. They generally agree that
momentum has been gained to put into place EETS and many elements essential to
EETS have already been established. Manufacturers are increasingly contacting
the Commission services for additional information or clarifications.
Contractual negotiations between potential EETS providers and toll chargers
have started.

–
To gain experience in technical as well as
contractual interoperability, some toll chargers have established joint
ventures offering to customers on-board units that can be used on all the
networks under their responsibility ("EasyGo+", a contractual
interoperability service currently in implementation, combining the various
DSRC technologies used in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Austria and
"TOLL2GO", a technical interoperability service already in operation,
ensuring DSRC/satellite interoperability between Austria and Germany). Other
toll chargers went even further: an agreement was found on both technical and
contractual interoperability between TIS-PL and VIA-T, which allows regional
service providers to offer electronic toll services covering toll domains in Spain and France.

However, a number of problems
subsist:

–
EETS implementation is still hampered by a lack
of cooperation between the different stakeholders groups, most of whom have
shown too little commitment for resolving problems of common interest. Efforts
by Member States have been limited so far at the level of separate national
interoperability, which is now implemented in most countries with electronic
tolling systems. A step change in the sense of pan-European interoperability is
required for a timely delivery of EETS at fair, reasonable and
non-discriminatory access conditions.

–
Most Member States still have to complete the
national framework so that potential EETS providers know how to register in
practice and where to complain in case of obstructive behaviour of Toll
Chargers. As of now, only two of the Member States having electronic road toll
systems have setup a Conciliation Body where such complaints can be addressed[15]. Discussions are still on-going
in all the other Member States with a view to finalising the corresponding
legal and regulatory framework before October 2012.

–
Some Toll Chargers are proposing a contractual
clause which automatically ends the contract if the EETS provider has not
reached full European coverage within 24 months[16]. Such a clause sets a
considerable business risk and discourages potential EETS providers. This was
not the legislator's intention, which was to prevent that an EETS Provider
would concentrate only on the most profitable markets and unduly delay its
coverage of the others. The loss of the status of EETS provider depends on
public authorities and should be decided only if there is no genuine intention
from the part of the concerned organisation to reach full European coverage.

–
The aggregated costs for assessing
interoperability and carrying out “suitability for use” tests required by certain
Toll Chargers from an EETS Provider may constitute a barrier to business entry.
But as explained before, professional stakeholders should use the options
offered in the Eurovignette legislation to mitigate the possible financial
risks of Toll Chargers and EETS Providers.

–
A number of running concession contracts may need
to be amended. For instance Toll Chargers may need to adjust the toll rates to
be able to finance the necessary investments they must do to adapt their
infrastructure. In the case of road tolling, concession contracts for levying
tolls are between a Toll Charger and the Member State or an agency working
under direct control of public authorities. Therefore the responsibility for making
possible the implementation of EETS on their territory lies primarily with the Member State concerned who can amend the existing concession contracts if necessary.

4.           Next Steps

In order to facilitate the timely
introduction of EETS by Member States and the industry and to promote the
necessary cooperation as requested by the European Parliament and the Council,
the following actions are necessary:

(1)
Accelerate a uniform implementation of
the decision

–
The Commission and the Member States will intensify the works of the Toll Committee set up by Directive 2004/52/EC. Member
States should fulfil as a matter of urgency their obligations provided for by
Decision 2009/750/EC regarding in particular the designation of their
national Conciliation Body (Article 10). The Commission will launch infringement
procedures where appropriate.

–
The Commission will monitor the implementation of
EETS by the Member States also in the light of its Guidance Note on the
interpretation of concepts referred to in Annex I of
Decision 2009/750/EC. The Member States and national conciliation bodies
should use the note in their contacts with Toll Chargers and potential EETS
providers. The latter should also use it in their contractual negotiations. Furthermore
the Commission will create a European network of national Conciliation Bodies which
would contribute to securing an EU-wide level playing field for the EETS
professional stakeholders.

–
Members States shall see to it that contractual
clauses automatically ending the contract if an EETS Provider does not reach full
European coverage within 24 months are not allowed. Such clauses go
against the intended useful effect of Decision 2009/750/EC. If such
practice is kept, the Commission will launch infringement proceedings.

–
The Commission will take an initiative using the
structure established by the current EETS legislation to develop a uniform set
of protocols for “suitability for use” tests, including on the security
aspects, in order to limit the discrepancy of these protocols between toll
Chargers, which would in turn contribute to reducing the costs charged to EETS
Providers.

–
The Commission will set-up with the stakeholders
a comprehensive information sharing resource platform, providing up-to-date
information on EETS through a single point of access on the Internet. This
platform will also contribute to the exchange of best practice and
dissemination of up-to-date information on EETS among professional
stakeholders.

(2)
A stepwise approach

As a first step towards full European
interoperability, Member States with significant volume of traffic on the
trans-European network should encourage the cross-border interoperability of their
electronic road toll systems. These early deployment project(s), on a regional
basis, will be promoted in a way so that they can be extended to cover all the
electronically tolled road infrastructures in the EU as soon as possible at a
later stage and can provide concrete experiences in solving practical EETS
issues.

Attention should be paid to the involvement
of a sufficiently wide set of Toll Chargers and Member States to ensure these
projects are scalable to the entire Union. The knowledge gained in implementing
these regional projects fully complying with the single contract/single
on-board unit principle should be shared effectively across all the
stakeholders.

The Commission is willing to provide
a technical assistance to such regional initiatives and is ready to examine the
provision of possible financial support to large scale regional projects in the
context of the TEN-T programme. Electronic toll systems are an integral
component of the trans-European-network (Article 9(3) of Decision 661/2010/EU
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 July 2010 on Union
Guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network[17]) and therefore eligible to EU
financial support. The Commission will consider including in the next TEN-T
work programme a section on EETS and such regional projects. Depending on the adoption
of the work programme, a call for proposals could be published by the end of
the year.

(3)
Closely monitor development and take new
initiatives if need be

Member States when starting new
projects or renewing concessions should systematically check and ensure
compliance with EETS requirements. When adopting its opinion on new tolling
arrangements which are notified in the framework of Article 7h of Directive
1999/62/EC (Eurovignette), the Commission will issue a negative opinion if they
do not include a fully EETS compatible system.

If disputes between toll chargers and
EETS Providers cannot be solved by the Conciliation Body, the Commission will
examine the points of contention and whether the arrangements between toll chargers
and their existing local/national service providers are discriminatory in
comparison with those proposed to EETS providers.

Lastly, it can be noted that the
White Paper on transport has indicated that if, despite all these efforts, its
assessment shows that no substantial progress has been achieved by mid-2013,
with no availability of an interoperable electronic toll service on a
substantial scale, the Commission reserves its right to present a new
initiative to the European Parliament and the Council.

The Commission reaffirms its commitment to
take all the necessary measures to facilitate the establishment of full
technical and operational interoperability of European electronic road tolling
systems. Together with stakeholders, it will redouble efforts to achieve
availability to all interested road users of a genuine European-wide electronic
toll service[18].

The European industry is at present a
global front-runner in road charging and tolling equipment. European companies
keep winning tolling contracts over the world [19].
EETS can facilitate the introduction and roll-out on a global scale of new
products such as interoperable on-board units, combining the digital tachograph
and tolling with other intelligent transport systems applications. This in turn
may give rise to completely new services and applications, again with a
potentially global market, which will contribute to the creation of growth and
jobs in the European economy.

[1]               OJ L 166, 30.4.2004, p. 124.

[2]               OJ L 268, 13.10.2009, p. 11.

[3]               Today’s road use charging schemes have to put in
place costly and cumbersome solutions to deal with occasional users, which are
usually not treated on a par with regular users.

[4]               Directive 1999/62/EC of the European parliament and
of the Council on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain
infrastructures, OJ L 187, 20.7.1999, p. 42-50.

[5]               Recital 31 and Article 7 j introduced by Directive
2011/76/EU.

[6]               For instance extensive studies by Expert Groups and
the CESARE projects.

[7]               AETIS: Association of Electronic Toll and
Interoperable Services established 22 December 2011.

[8]               FR, BE, HU and DK.

[9]               Goal #10: Move towards full application of “user
pays” and “polluter pays” principles ...to generate revenues and ensure financing
for future transport investments.

Page 15: Externalities (noise,
pollution...) could be internalised by RUC: 1 Proposal for Euro-vignette
amendment, 2. Further action will examine the gradual phasing in of a
mandatory harmonised internalisation system for commercial vehicles on the
entire inter-urban network...

Action #32: An EU framework for urban
road user charging.

Action #39: Smart pricing and
taxation / Evaluate existing car road charging schemes.../ Proceed with the
internalisation of external costs...

[10]             Members of the Stockholm Group are ministries or
national authorities from AT, DE, DK, FI, FR, HU, IE, NL, PL, SE, SI, UK as well as CH, NO.

[11]             Standards
CEN EN 15509, EN 15876, CEN/ISO EN 14906, TS 14907 and TS 25110.

[12]             Standard CEN/ISO EN 12855.

[13]             http://ec.europa.eu/transport/publications/doc/2011-eets-european-electronic-toll-service_en.pdf

[14]             Professional stakeholders were consulted in 2011 by a questionnaire
survey and a conference.

[15]             The national Conciliation Body’s main mission is to
verify, upon request, that fair and non-discriminatory contractual conditions
are granted to all the EETS Providers on any EETS toll domain on the Member
State’s territory, i.e. that the contractual conditions required by a Toll
Chargers on different EETS Providers are non-discriminatory and a fair
reflection of the costs and risks of the parties to the contract.

[16]             Article 4(1) of Decision 2009/750/EC on the rights and
obligations of EETS Providers provides that EETS Providers shall cover all the EETS
domains in the Community within 24 months following their registration.

[17]             OJ L 204 of 5.8.2010, p. 1.

[18]             The EETS legislation ensures that road users' fundamental
rights, in particular the protection of personal data, are fully respected.

[19]             E.g. recently Australia, Belarus, Canada, Israel