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Ecopoint future still undecided
Page 8
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• The extension of Austria's ecopoint regulation—which restricts the number of lorries that can cross its ecologically sensitive Alpine passes—is on a political knife-edge, with the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers at loggerheads over the shape of a future system.
The current regulation framework is due to expire this December, but if MEPs and ministers cannot agree on a replacement system In a special conciliation committee—due to be set up within weeks—the proposal will fail and Brussels politicians will go back to the drawing board. The European Parliament this week refused to back a compromise deal struck in the council on New Year's Eve, preferring its own model which would gradually ban older lorries from crossing the Alps, rather than adopting the alternative, more flexible, system promoted by EU ministers, Under the MEPs' system, by 2006 Euro-0 and I rated lorries would be banned from the Austrian Alps, with a quota system imposed on Euro-2 lorries and unrestricted access for Euro-3 and future Euro-4 vehicles. The council wants to maintain the existing system where EU countries are given an allocation of lorry journey permits, which can be expanded by using cleaner vehicles.