Sustainable transports: the Tajani set of laws

 

The European Commission has launched a set of laws to make the transports less polluting and more respectful of the environment. Among the measures, the revision of the "Euro-vignette" that includes the possibility for the states to establish a toll for the trucks based on the pollution and the traffic congestion they cause. "It is not an additional cost, it is not a tax and it is not an obligatory measure for the states", so said the commissioner Tajani, which added: "The toll is not an additional cost but the application of the principle: those who pollute will pay." 
The incomes so obtained will have a mandatory destination and shall be used for reducing the environmental impact of the transports and the traffic congestion. "This set of laws - said Tajani - faces the problem of pollution and climatic changes, guaranteeing that the costs of the environmental damages are met by polluters and not by contributors. More ecological transports, a riduction of emissions, saving over 80% in the fuel consumption of trucks, a smaller congestion for all the drivers are among the aims of the initiative. Delays, pollution and high costs are all negative elements for transport companies, for their customers and for all of us. A system of efficient and sustainable transport will be, on the long run, more attractive and less expensive." 
The revision of the Euro-vignette directive will be examined by European Parliament and European Council. The Commission hopes that definitive approval will be quick and that the new regime will become effective before 2011. The set of laws contains also a communication aimed to reduce acoustic pollution caused by railways, an inventory of the UE measures about sustainable transports and a communication on other initiatives that the Commission intends to adopt on this topic within the end of 2009.