Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 894: To ask the Minister for Transport the position in respect of the proposed Eurovignette directive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2301/06]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The EU Commission's proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 1999/62/EC on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures, more commonly known as the Eurovignette directive, has been under consideration by the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council and by the European Parliament since its publication in July 2003. It was agreed by the European Parliament on 15 December on the basis of a compromise text put forward by the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in response to the European Parliament's amendment proposals. Ireland's negotiating position was discussed in some detail at the meeting of the Joint Committee on Transport held on Wednesday, 20 October 2004. As outlined at that meeting, our focus in the negotiations was to ensure that the proposed directive achieved an acceptable balance between ensuring that the approach to toll calculation did not increase transport costs in accessing European markets by road, and the need to maintain flexibility to design tolling schemes that would continue to attract private sector financing for the roads programme through toll based PPPs. I consider that the amending directive, as now agreed, to which we contributed considerable effort during our Presidency in 2004, provides a good framework for HGV charging which acknowledges the special circumstances of toll based PPPs.