CELEX: 51987PC0716
Language: en
Date: 1988-01-08
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE CHARGING OF TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS TO HEAVY GOODS VEHICLES

No C 79/8                                Official Journal of the European Communities                                   26. 3. 88
                                                                II
                                                        (Preparatory Acts)
                                                   COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Directive on the charging of transport infrastructure costs to heavy
                                                          goods vehicles
                                                       COM(87) 716 final
                             (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 15 January 1988)
                                                          (88/C 79/12)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, -                          Whereas the tax rates should be determined in such a
                                                                    way as to reflect the costs caused to the road infra-
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European               structure by these vehicles; whereas for this purpose the
Economic Community, and in particular Articles 75 and               taxation on any vehicle, taking account of the excise on
99 thereof,                                                         diesel oil which will have been harmonized at a
                                                                    Community basis by 1992, or taxes of a comparable
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                  effect, should at least cover the traffic-related cost of
                                                                    using the infrastructure incurred by that vehicle; whereas
Having regard       to  the   opinion     of   the  European        in determining tax rates, allowance should be made for
Parliament,                                                         the effects of the payment of tolls for the use of certain
                                                                    road infrastructure in certain Member States;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee,
                                                                    Whereas methods for determining tax rates in
Whereas one of the objectives of the common transport               accordance with the above principles, should be estab-
policy is to eliminate disparities liable to cause significant      lished in a second phase by the Commission; whereas in
distortions of competitive conditions in the transport              this context external costs should be considered with
sector; whereas differences are prevalent in, inter alia,           reference to intermodal competition; whereas, also, the
the field of taxation relating to transport; whereas in this        territoriality principle will be the base of a more appro-
connection it is necessary to take measures designed in             priate system for paying vehicle taxes;
particular to approximate the Member States' provisions
on the taxation of heavy goods vehicles and to avoid any
double taxation of these vehicles;                                  Whereas it is advisable initially to limit the adjustment of
                                                                    national taxation systems to diesel-powered commercial
Whereas the need to take particular measures to achieve             vehicles of more than a certain threshold tonnage liable
these aims is recorded in Council Decision 65/271/EEC               to be used for intra-Community transport of goods;
of 13 May 1965 on the harmonization of certain                      whereas it should be possible in certain specific cases to
provisions affecting competition in transport by rail, road         grant exemptions from or reductions of the tax, or to
and inland waterway (');                                            increase it, and moreover to apply the new tax rates
                                                                    progressively where the taxation of particular vehicles
Whereas transport in the non-European territories of the            would undergo substantial changes;
Member States is carried on in conditions which are
fundamentally different from those obtaining in Europe;
whereas this Directive should therefore not apply to                Whereas during a transitional period, ending with the
these territories;                                                  establishment of a common system on fixing tax rates,
                                                                    immediate measures have to be taken to stop divergent
Whereas the above objectives should be achieved by                  trends in vehicle taxation,
progressively adjusting the national taxation systems for
the use or possession of heavy goods vehicles; whereas
priority should be given to approximating the structure
                                                                    HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
of the tax systems, and to this end the basis of taxation
for these vehicles should be their maximum permissible
gross laden weights within categories classified according
                                                                                               Article 1
to the number and configuration of their axles;
                                                                     1.    Member States shall adjust their systems of taxation
                                                                    of the use or possession of heavy goods vehicles in
O OJ No 88, 24. 5. 1965, p. 1500/65.                                accordance with this Directive.
 ---pagebreak---   26. 3. 88                               Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 79/9
 2.     This Directive shall not apply to the non-European           — Greece:
 territories of the Member States. It shall also not apply
                                                                         TeAj) Ki)icA,0(popiac,
 to the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, Azores or
 Madeira.
                                                                     — Spain:
                                                                         (a) impuesto municipal de circulation
                             Article 2
                                                                         (b) licencia fiscal
 1.     For the purpose of this Directive, 'heavy goods
 vehicles' means self-propelled vehicles, trailers and semi-         — France:
 trailers registered in a Member State or, if not registered,
                                                                         (a) taxe speciale sur certains vehicules routiers
 belonging to undertakings established in a Member State
 or to residents of a Member State or used, within a                    (b) taxe differentielle sur les vehicules a moteur
 Member State by these undertakings or these residents,
provided that:                                                      — Ireland:
                                                                        vehicle excise duties
— their tractive power is provided by a diesel engine,
                                                                    — Italy:
— they are used for the transport of goods by road,
                                                                        (a) tassa di circolazione sugli autoveicoli
— their maximum permissible gross laden weight is at                    (b) addizionale det 5 °/o sulla tassa di circolazione
     least equal to:
                                                                    — Luxembourg:
       (i) 12 tonnes for a rigid lorry or tractor vehicle,              taxe sur les vehicules automoteurs
           whether used separately or as part of a road
           train or an articulated vehicle;
                                                                    — Netherlands:
      (ii) 4 tonnes for a trailer of a road train, or a semi-
           trailer of an articulated vehicle, where the                 motorrijtuigenbelasting
           weight of the tractor vehicle is at least 12
           tonnes;                                                  — Portugal:
     (iii) 16 tonnes for a road train or an articulated                 (a) imposto de camionagem
           vehicle, where the weight of the tractor unit is             (b) imposto de circula^ao
           less than 12 tonnes.
                                                                    — United Kingdom:
These limits shall apply irrespective of whether the parts
                                                                        vehicle excise duties.
of the road train or the articulated vehicle are taxed as a
whole or separately. For the purposes of determining the
weight of the parts of an articulated vehicle, the portion
                                                                                                Article 4
of the weight of the semi-trailer which rests on the
tractor coupling shall be added to the weight of the                1.     Member States shall not levy taxes or charges on
tractor and deducted from the weight of the semi-trailer.           the use or possession of heavy goods vehicles other than
                                                                    the taxes referred to in Article 3.
2.      Member States shall have the right to exclude from
the   scope of this Directive vehicles of the armed forces          2.     Paragraph 1 shall not prevent Member States from
and   the police and vehicles belonging to or registered in         introducing or retaining:
the   name of a public, regional or local authority.
                                                                    (a) Minor specific taxes or dues, such as the vehicle
                            Article 3                                   registration taxes levied in some Member States or
                                                                        the dues on vehicles or loads of abnormal weights or
Without prejuduce to the provisions of Article 5, the                   dimensions;
adjustment of taxation systems referred to in Article 1
shall apply to the following taxes:                                 (b) Parking fees and urban traffic charges;
— Belgium:
                                                                    (c) Subject to the conditions set out in Article 5, charges
     taxe de circulation sur les vehicules automobiles/                 (road tolls) for the use of road infrastructures.
     verkeersbelasting op de autovoertuigen
— Denmark:                                                          3.    By way of derogation from the provisions of
                                                                    paragraph 1 and pending completion of the work
     vaegtafgift af motork0ret0j'er m.v.                            referred to in Article 10, the Member States shall be
                                                                    authorized to levy taxes or charges on heavy goods
— Federal Republic of Germany:                                      vehicles calculated on the basis of costs resulting from air
     Kraftfahrzeugsteuer                                            pollution and noise pollution caused by such vehicles.
 ---pagebreak---  No C 79/10                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                26. 3. 88
                           Article 5                              combined transport of goods between Member States ('),
                                                                  as amended by Council Directive 82/603/EEC of 28
 1.    Road tolls for heavy goods vehicles shall be subject      July 1982 (2), Member States may not grant heavy goods
to the following conditions:                                      vehicles any exemption from or reduction in the taxes
                                                                  mentioned in Article 3 and in particular:
(a) Tolls shall be charged without direct or indirect
     discrimination on the grounds of nationality and             (a) on the grounds of their being in the territory of
     without discrimination on grounds of the origin or               other Member States;
     destination of the traffic;
                                                                  (b) on the grounds that they may have paid tolls in the
(b) Tolls shall be related to the cost of constructing and            sense of Article 5;
     operating the infrastructure concerned as well as the
     costs of its use;                                            (c) on the grounds of certain quantitative or qualitative
                                                                      characteristics of heavy goods vehicles (e.g. age of
                                                                      vehicles, number of vehicles in a single enterprise,
(c) Collection of the tolls is organized in such a way as
                                                                      etc.).
     to hinder the free movement of traffic as little as
     possible. To this end Member States shall adapt their
     methods of collection to the most efficient techno-          3.    Member States may not grant any refund of vehicle
     logical developments.                                       tax on the basis of excise duty on diesel fuel which may
                                                                 be paid in respect of its vehicles for the period during
                                                                 which they are on the territory of other Member States.
2.     New tolls may be introduced only for structures
completed after the entry into force of this Directive.
                                                                 4.     However, Member States may grant exemptions
                                                                 from or reduction in tax in respect of the time the
                          Article 6                              vehicles referred to in Article 2 spend in the territory of
                                                                 third countries, if the vehicles concerned are required to
 1.    For taxation purposes heavy goods vehicles shall be       pay vehicle taxes similar to the tax resulting from this
classified by categories according to the number and             Directive.
configuration of their axles.
                                                                                           Article 9
2.    Within each category or sub-category the basis of
taxation shall be the maximum permissible gross laden             1.   With immediate effect from the date of adoption of
weight of the heavy goods vehicles.                              this Directive and subject to paragraph 2, Member States
                                                                 shall not reduce their existing heavy goods vehicle tax
                                                                 rates. They may however increase vehicle tax rates to
3.    Tax rates shall be differentiated by increments of         obtain a better coverage of infrastructure costs.
gross laden weight of not more than 2 000 kilograms.
                                                                 2.    After consultation of the Commission, Member
                          Article 7                              States may, however, reduce heavy goods vehicle taxes if
                                                                 substantial increases take place in the level of excise
 1.    Procedures for the levying and collection of taxes        duties on diesel fuel in force on the date of adoption of
shall be determined by each Member State.                        this Directive. The Commission shall formulate its
                                                                 opinions within two months after receipt of notification
                                                                 by the Member States concerned.
2.     In the case of articulated vehicles and road trains,
tax rates may be determined:
                                                                                          Article 10
— for each part of the combination taken separately, or
                                                                  1.   After 31 December 1992 infrastructure costs shall
                                                                 be charged to users through a combination of taxes on
— for the combination as a whole.                                the possession or use of heavy goods vehicles levied in
                                                                 accordance with the principle of territoriality and, where
                                                                 they exist, tolls, taking account of the fact that excise
                          Article 8
                                                                 duties on diesel oil will have been harmonized at
1.     Heavy goods vehicles shall be exempted, in                Community level by that date. The principle of territor-
Member States other than the Member State under                  iality shall mean that the allocation of infrastructure
whose jurisdiction they fall, from the taxes mentioned in        costs shall be determined for each vehicle category on
Article 3. These vehicles shall be subject to those taxes as     the basis of the use of the road infrastructure in the
if they were used exclusively in the Member State under          country of registration and the use of road infrastructure
whose jurisdiction they fall.                                    in the other Member States of the Community.
2.    Without prejudice to the provisions of Article 8 of
Council Directive 75/130/EEC of 17 February 1975 on              (') OJ No L 48, 22. 2. 1975, p. 31.
the establishment of common rules for certain types of           (2) OJ No L 247, 23. 8. 1982, p. 6.
 ---pagebreak--- 26. 3. 88                              Official Journal of the European Communities                              N o C 79/11
2. The Commission shall submit a proposal to                      Directive as from 1 January 1990. Member States shall
implement the principles referred to in paragraph 1               inform the Commission of the measures they take to
above by 1 July 1989 for adoption by the Council before           implement the Directive.
31 December 1990.
                                                                  2. Member States which at the date of adoption of
The proposal will in particular deal with methods of              this Directive do not set their tax rates to the maximum
infrastructure cost-calculation, -allocation and -charging,       permissible gross laden weight may extend the period in
as well as with systems of collection and distribution of         which they adopt the structure of vehicle tax to the
funds.                                                            requirement of Article 6 (2) and (3) up to 31 December
                                                                  1992.
                         Article 11
                                                                                          Article 12
1. After consulting the Commission, Member States
shall take the measures necessary to comply with this             This Directive is addressed to the Member States.