Skip to main content

French government suspend Ecotax after violent protests

As this issue of ITS International goes to press there is considerable confusion over the introduction of the French Ecotax following widespread and sometimes violent protests. Following a series of postponements going back over several years, the GNSS-based tax on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes was due to come into effect on 1 January 2014 and was expected to raise one billion euros per year. However, the French government has announced that the tax has been suspended indefinitely but is stressing that this is
December 20, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
As this issue of 1846 ITS International goes to press there is considerable confusion over the introduction of the French Ecotax following widespread and sometimes violent protests.

Following a series of postponements going back over several years, the GNSS-based tax on vehicles over 3.5 tonnes was due to come into effect on 1 January 2014 and was expected to raise one billion euros per year. However, the French government has announced that the tax has been suspended indefinitely but is stressing that this is a suspension, not a cancellation.

The suspension was announced after France’s politically significant farmers joined the growing protests as they were unhappy about a ‘green tax’ being levied on the vehicles used to transport products from their farms. French newspaper Le Monde has reported that the tax may be postponed until July 2014 after local and EU elections but there is no official word from the government of French President Francois Hollande.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Big wheels keep on turnin’
    August 21, 2018
    Many of the great and the good in the global mobility sector gathered at this year’s Movin’ On event in Montreal. Measured regulation of technologies and safety issues were major themes, reports David Arminas. *Bibendum is the original name for the Michelin Man, the symbol of the Michelin tyre company Autonomous vehicles, platooning, smart intersections and safety – these were the talking points over two-and-a-half days of the Movin’ On event in Montreal, Canada. Everyone in the mobility sector is at the
  • Road safety reformer Jacques Chirac dies
    September 27, 2019
    The news that former French president Jacques Chirac has died, aged 86, should be of note for those in the road safety sector. His political legacy is well known. Chirac was prime minister of France from 1974-76 and again from 1986-88, mayor of Paris from 1977-95 and finally president of France from 1995-2007. But his political reputation ended under a cloud following his suspended sentence on corruption charges. Perhaps less well widely known, however, is that Chirac had a tremendously beneficial eff
  • Reflecting on five years of important ITS progress
    January 7, 2013
    Former head of the ITS Joint Program Office Shelley Row has passed the baton to a new director. Now working as an independent consultant, here she reflects on her five years at the helm of the JPO and what the future may hold for ITS in the US. During a mid-morning in Paris earlier this year, having just landed, I decided to take a trip on the city’s subway (Paris’ underground metro) into the city centre. A family with a small boy – about nine years old – boarded the same train. They were American and we st
  • e-Call emergency service doesn't go far enough
    January 30, 2012
    eCall misses the point and is only a tacit acknowledgement that the road safety issue has not yet been adequately addressed, according to FEMA's Aline Delhaye. According to the Federation of European Motorcyclists' Associations (FEMA), the European Commission's (EC's) ambitions for eCall implementation are premature and fail to take account of all road users' needs or of technological progress elsewhere.