European lawmakers agree to improve toll collection rules

The European Parliament (EP) and European Council (EC) have agreed on rules to improve the tracing of drivers who fail to pay road tolls when travelling within the 1816 European Union.

The informal agreement is expected to improve information exchange on vehicle data.  

Additionally, the agreed rules are intended to allow service providers to develop a system which allows drivers to use a single on-board toll payment device when travelling across the EU.

Rapporteur Massimilano Salini (European People’s Party) says the implementation of an interoperable EU electronic toll system creates a harmonised and simplified service which helps European citizens and firms save hundreds of millions of euros.

Salini said that sorting out the problem over uncollected toll fees was “of the utmost importance” since it cost a great deal of money for the firms involved.

The EP and EC now need to confirm the agreement on the revision of the European Electronic Tolling Service Directive.

In 2017, the EC adopted a 2External<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary />000link-external proposalfalsehttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2018)625142truefalse%> for a directive on the interoperability of electronic road toll systems and facilitating cross-border exchange of information on the failure to pay road fees. It was presented within the context of the EC’s ‘Europe on the Move’ package which seeks to modernise mobility and transport.