Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-12-17-Speech-3-148"
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"en.20031217.5.3-148"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to make use of the opportunity afforded by the discussion of this report to underline the distinction that should continue to be drawn between the harmonisation of toll collection systems and the uniform collection of tolls as tax. I am, on the one hand, referring to the technical aspects that are being discussed and whereby it is intended to achieve interoperability of electronic toll collection systems across the Union. Nobody in their right mind will be opposed to this. It does, however, strike me that this report steers clear of a few important political issues that have arisen during the discussion of this topic, and so a more comprehensive discussion would have been desirable.
I would particularly emphasise the fact that it should remain up to the Member States themselves to assess the desirability of a toll system for lorries and passenger cars. It seems rather logical to me that in a peripheral or insular state, such as Portugal, or Malta, which is due to accede in the near future, the economic and political considerations there are different from those in, for example, Flanders, which, being situated between Germany, France, the Netherlands and Great Britain, forms the EU’s central traffic intersection. The Flemish motorways are at risk of being oversaturated by the exponential increase in freight traffic. In order to stimulate transport by rail and sea, for example, Flanders should be able to use criteria that are different from those of other Member States, if it wanted to introduce toll collections for freight traffic tomorrow, because it collects no tolls at present. The same applies to toll collections on passenger transport, whereby so many different factors, including tourism, traffic density, air pollution, economic structures, and so on, can play a role in determining whether or not such toll collections are desirable. Every government should retain the right to weigh up for itself whether the already heavily taxed car drivers – and we are talking about working people who keep the wheels of industry oiled – should be taxed even more.
Today, Europe may harmonise the technical aspects of – and I should like to drive this point home
toll systems. When it comes to making political and economic decisions in this respect, this Parliament and the Commission would do well to show a little more respect for the subsidiarity principle, to which often only lip service is paid."@en1
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