WRITTEN QUESTION E-1230/02 by Luciano Caveri (ELDR) to the Commission. 'Telepass' standard.
Date: 2002-04-29
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European standard, standardisation, systems interconnection, toll

C 301 E/110

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

5.12.2002

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(13 June 2002)

The Commission wishes to inform the Honourable Member that the existing scientific and technological
cooperation agreement does in fact associate Israel to the ongoing 5th Framework Programme (FP).

Freezing the agreement associating Israel to this Framework Programme would require a Council decision
based on a Commission proposal.
It should be noted that either of the contracting parties of the
Association Agreement to the FP may terminate at any time on a notification period stipulated in the
agreement. Projects and activities in progress at the time of termination of this Agreement shall continue
until their completion under the conditions led down in this Agreement.

Regarding the 6th Framework Programme, it has not yet entered into force. Israel therefore cannot be
associated to it.

(2002/C 301 E/115)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1230/02

by Luciano Caveri (ELDR) to the Commission

(29 April 2002)

Subject:

’Telepass’ standard

For some years now an automatic toll collection system called ‘Telepass’ has been in widespread use on the
Italian motorway network. Can the Commission state whether this standard could be ‘exported’ to other
EU countries, or whether it would be preferable to develop a new and more modern single standard for
Union-wide application, in the context of infrastructure charging?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(3 June 2002)

Telepass is the first automatic toll collection system in widespread use in Europe. It was introduced in the
early 1990s and now has over 2 million subscribers in Italy.

However, general application of this system beyond the frontiers of Italy raises a series of problems:

(cid:1) first, several European countries have already installed other systems nationwide: Portugal, France and

Spain. Others, such as Germany or the Netherlands, are also moving towards other solutions;

(cid:1) second,

the European standardisation bodies have repeatedly refused to adopt Telepass as the

European standard;

(cid:1) finally, this system is now ageing and more sophisticated technologies have emerged which make it
tollbooths, one problem
to avoid radio interference between adjacent

possible,
encountered with Telepass in certain cases.

for example,

In response to the failed attempts at national level and by the standardisation bodies and drawing on, inter
the technical work carried out in recent months on research projects and the trans-European
alia,
for a directive on the interoperability of
networks, the Commission will be submitting a proposal
electronic road toll systems in Europe as part of its work programme for 2002. As announced in the
September 2001 White Paper ‘European transport policy for 2010: time to decide’1 (1), the objective is to
make a pan-European automatic toll collection service available on the entire toll network in Europe and
for vehicles of all types between 2005 and 2008. Such a service by no means rules out using other
systems alongside it to cater for local or national requirements. The system will have to be based on
modern, efficient technology available all over Europe and capable of offering other value-added services to
motorists and travellers.

(1) COM(2001) 370 final.