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Euro court supports ecopoints
Page 18
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THE AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT has failed in its legal bid to abolish the ecopoints system. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) rejected Austria's assertion that the system fails to control the movement of trucks across its Alpine passes.
Austria argued that issuing pollution-based permits to hauliers goes against the European Union's legal principle of 'proportionality'; this requires laws to be "both adequate and necessary for attaining the objective concerned". In this instance, Austria claimed: "The points system established by the regulation is not adequate.. to reduce emissions from heavy goods vehicles." But the ECJ ruled that the ecopoints system has contributed to a greater protection of the environment than if EU standard freedom of trade rules had applied".
It added that the system was neither -excessively restrictive" to business nor "manifestly deficient" in terms of environmental protection.