Press release

The European Shippers’ Council, which represents the freight transport and logistics interests of some 100,000 companies across Europe has issued a paper strongly calling on the Commission to take into account the views of European industry when coming up with legislation to revise the Eurovignette and common framework to internalize external costs for all modes of transport.

ESC has challenged in its paper the Polluter Pays Principle on which the Commission has announced to base its future legislative proposal to internalise external costs, starting with a Revised Eurovignette proposal. The proposal is intended to ensure operators and users of road freight services pay the full costs of road congestion, pollution, noise and accidents (so-called ‘external costs’).

Whilst the Polluter Pays Principle may seem at first sight a fair principle it is not an adequate response to the problems and will amount to an easy way to collect taxes from industry, said ESC’s Secretary General, Nicolette van der Jagt. “It is not based on any sound cost-benefit analysis but will simply make reliable, effective and essential road freight services more expensive. The approach will do little to reduce the environmental impact or costs from road freight unless the derived revenue is ploughed straight back into congestion-busting, noise abating, pollution reducing and accident preventing schemes on the roads where the charges are collected.”

A number of industry groups have also voiced strong objections to the Polluter Pays Principle and, like the ESC, have advocated an alternative approach whereby one identifies the least cost option to reduce the external damage caused by transport and then users of transport pay a charge to cover the costs of the mitigating measures (called the Cheapest Cost Avoider Principle). Under this approach it would be left to the party that can prevent or abate the damage at the lowest cost for the overall economy to take action.

ESC has called on the Commission to follow a number of basic requirements aimed at reducing external costs that would make the policy proposal more fair and effective: The external costs of road transport (such as congestion) are in large part directly attributable to private car use and therefore any proposals for internalising external costs must apply also to users of private passenger vehicles.

Finally, ESC calls on the Commission to apply the internalisation of external costs to ALL modes of transport. Until there is equal treatment given to all modes of transport in the internalisation of external costs, with implementation at the same time and in equal measure (in proportion to the external costs of each mode), ESC sees no justification for the urgency the European Commission is giving to implementation of this policy.

ESC’s submission can be found at: http://www.europeanshippers.com/public_statements.jsp : 31/05/08 ‘Internalizing external costs of transport - A Position Paper of the European Shippers Council

For further information contact: Nicolette van der Jagt, Secretary General of the ESC - Brussels 00 322 230 2113