Skip to main content

Dutch to level EU protest against German toll plan

A petition with almost 45,000 signatures will be submitted to the European Parliament on 2 September by the Royal Dutch Touring Club (ANWB) in protest at a proposed German road toll that will fall primarily on foreign drivers. The Dutch Club is urging the European Parliament to get involved and address the question of discrimination against international motorists. The ANWB will be represented by their President, Frits van Bruggen, and the European Parliament will be represented by Dutch MEP, Wim van de
August 28, 2014 Read time: 2 mins

A petition with almost 45,000 signatures will be submitted to the European Parliament on 2 September by the Royal Dutch Touring Club (481 ANWB) in protest at a proposed German road toll that will fall primarily on foreign drivers.

The Dutch Club is urging the European Parliament to get involved and address the question of discrimination against international motorists. The ANWB will be represented by their President, Frits van Bruggen, and the European Parliament will be represented by Dutch MEP, Wim van de Camp.

According to the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the German government’s new road tax, a toll to fund road infrastructure, provides compensation to Germans, thereby exempting German nationals from the obligation to pay. If implemented, this means that foreign drivers will be financing the expansion and maintenance of German roads, a policy that is clearly discriminating against non-German road users and that is in conflict with the key EU principle of non-discrimination.

Related Content

  • October 22, 2018
    The long road to Spanish enlightenment
    Julián Núñez, immediate past president of ASECAP, gets his teeth into the vision of a European strategy for toll roads. David Arminas reports from Madrid. Getting European politicians to agree to a long-term cross-border highway infrastructure programme for toll roads is extremely difficult. It’s a bit like pulling teeth: people want to avoid the pain. But pain is something that Spanish operators, including Abertis, OHL, ACS, FCC and Acciona, have been going through for the past decade. The country has
  • October 31, 2018
    EU draft on road pricing adopts ‘user pays’ principle
    Draft rules have been adopted by European policy makers which would bring the idea of widescale ‘user pays’ road pricing one step closer. European Union member states which currently use time-based road user charges will need to switch to distance-based ones for trucks and buses (over 2.4 tonnes) from 2023, and vans and minibuses from 2027, if the rules are made into law. The idea is that vehicles would then be charged according to their actual road use and the pollution they generate. The ‘user
  • January 31, 2012
    Australian road pricing, road funding needs more debate
    Everyone in the road transport industry in Australia is talking road pricing - everyone, that is, except the politicians. Christine Keyes reports. At the end of 2008, Australia's road transport industry was wringing its collective hands, unable to raise more than $100 million from an individual bank for any Public Private Partnership (PPP). The A$750 million Peninsula Link project, announced by the Victoria Government in March 2009, was the first road project in the country to be put out to market as an ava
  • May 6, 2016
    20 cities challenge relaxation of EU air pollution standards
    Ordered to cut air pollution levels by Brussels, a group of EU cities are taking the European Commission to court over its decision to relax car emissions standards, making their objectives even less attainable, according to EurActiv France. The EU’s muddled position on air pollution has angered the bloc’s major cities. For Paris, Madrid and Copenhagen, the EU’s decision to give carmakers more freedom to pollute is unacceptable. But since it was discreetly added to the Official Journal of the European Unio