WRITTEN QUESTION P-2210/02

by Giacomo Santini (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(12 July 2002)

Subject: Award of ecopoints and application of the 108 % clause

In the document on the award of ecopoints submitted on 1 July 2002 the Commission announced that it had decided to deduct as many as 350 000 ecopoints from Italy's quota for transit journeys in 2001.

The reasons given for doing so relate to the application of the 108 % clause.

Given that in its new proposal for a revision of the ecopoints system submitted on 21 December 2002(1) the Commission itself announces that the 108 % clause is to be repealed since it has proved disastrous owing to its adverse impact and to verification difficulties, would it now state:

- on what basis it is announcing a cut in Italy's quota of ecopoints even before the annual verification for 2001 has been carried out;

- how it can justify such a move on the basis of a clause (the 108 % provision) which, although not yet officially repealed since consideration of the proposal within Parliament has not yet been completed, has been repudiated by all concerned and has been declared impossible to implement in an official Commission document;

- how it intends to dissuade the Austrian police from carrying out overly-officious checks on non-Austrian heavy goods vehicles, thus wasting an enormous amount of time and money, and how it intends to go about reducing the disproportionate tolls charged at the Europabruck and the Arlberg Tunnel?

(1) COM(2001) 807 final, 2001/0310(COD), OJ C 103 E, 30.4.2002, p. 230.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(3 September 2002)

The Commission would inform the Honourable Member that, as of 1 July 2002, it has not decided to reduce the number of ecopoints to be awarded to the Member States and that the provisions of Commission Regulation No 609/2000 (Article 6(3))(1) have been fulfilled.

On 21 December 2000(2), the Commission presented a proposal that the 108 % clause should be removed. It was approved at first reading by Parliament in September 2001. The proposal is still before the Council.

Until the Council decides the matter, the Commission is obliged to ensure that the legislation currently in force is respected and, like last year, has therefore set aside a number of electronic ecopoints in case the 108 % clause has to be applied this year. The transit journey statistics forwarded by Austria have been examined by the Commission and by the ecopoints management committee. As a result, on 24 July 2002, the Commission decided not to apply the clause for the year 2001 and not to reduce the number of ecopoints for 2002. It has therefore gone ahead with the allocation of the remaining ecopoints.

The Commission has been informed of problems with police checks on Austrian roads, and has sent a letter to the Austrian federal authorities asking for further explanation.

In its judgment of 26 September 2000(3), the Court of Justice ruled that, in the context of the infringement proceedings initiated by the Commission, Austria had failed to fulfil its obligations under Council Directive 93/89/EEC(4) in respect of toll charges. Austria has, in the meantime, put an end to the discriminatory Brenner toll charges, reducing them slightly. In addition, as announced in 2002 in the White Paper on European transport policy, the Commission is currently drawing up a methodology for setting transport infrastructure charges, and plans to publish a new directive on road infrastructure charging by the end of 2002.

(1) Commission Regulation (EC) No 609/2000 of 21 March 2000 amending Regulation (EC) No 3298/94 laying down detailed measures concerning the system of rights of transit (ecopoints) for heavy-goods vehicles transiting through Austria. OJ L 73, 22.3.2000.

(2) COM(2000) 862 final.

(3) Case C-205/98, Commission v Republic of Austria [2000] ECR I-7367.

(4) Council Directive 93/89/EEC of 25 October 1993 on the application by Member States of taxes on certain vehicles used for the carriage of goods by road and tolls and charges for the use of certain infrastructures. OJ L 279, 12.11.1993.