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Summaries of EU Legislation

Electronic road tolls — interoperability of national systems

 

SUMMARY OF:

Directive (EU) 2019/520 — on the interoperability of electronic road toll systems and facilitating cross-border exchange of information on the failure to pay road fees in the EU

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE DIRECTIVE?

It aims to make the EU electronic road toll rules more effective by:

  • improving the interoperability of the system under which they operate;
  • establishing a legal basis for the cross-border exchange of information on vehicles, and their owners or holders, which have failed to pay road fees in the EU.

The directive recasts and repeals Directive 2004/52/EC from 20 October 2021.

KEY POINTS

Scope

The directive does not apply to:

  • non-electronic road toll systems;
  • small, strictly local, road toll systems for which the costs would outweigh the benefits.

European Electronic Toll Service (EETS)

  • The EETS is the way to achieve an interoperable road toll system.
  • It enables road users to subscribe to a single contract and to use on-board equipment* to pay electronic tolls across the EU.
  • It is complementary to national road toll schemes.

The directive sets out the rules for the EETS including:

  • the general principles, including the procedure for registering EETS providers, and the rights and obligations for EETS providers and toll chargers;
  • the role of the Conciliation Body, established to mediate between toll chargers and EETS providers;
  • the provision for ensuring a single continuous service, i.e. once a vehicle’s details have been entered in the system, no further input is required regardless of which EETS providers’ domain the vehicle travels through;
  • the establishment of a single contact office if an EU country has more than one EETS domain.

Cross-border exchange of information

The directive sets out rules for the exchange of information concerning the failure to pay road tolls including:

  • the procedure for the exchange of information between EU countries;
  • the information letter on the failure to pay a road toll;
  • the provision of information by an EU country to the toll charging body.

FROM WHEN DOES THE DIRECTIVE APPLY?

It applies from 19 October 2019 and has to become law in the EU countries by 19 October 2021.

However, the directive also sets out a number of specific deadlines:

  • 19 October 2019 — relating to the Conciliation Body, implementing acts of the European Commission on specifications for electronic interfaces, interoperability constituents, and delegated acts of the Commission on notified bodies;
  • 19 October 2021 — on the availability of national electronic registers;
  • 19 April 2023 — on reporting by the EU countries to the Commission, and by the Commission to the European Parliament and Council;
  • 17 April 2024 — on the Commission's power to adopt delegated acts.

BACKGROUND

The EU has also established rules for the sharing of information between EU countries in the case of road traffic offences.

KEY TERMS

On-board equipment: the complete set of hardware and software components to be used as part of the toll service which is installed or carried on board a vehicle in order to collect, store, process and remotely receive/transmit data, either as a separate device or installed in the vehicle.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Directive (EU) 2019/520 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 March 2019 on the interoperability of electronic road toll systems and facilitating cross-border exchange of information on the failure to pay road fees in the Union (OJ L 91, 29.3.2019, pp. 45-76)

RELATED DOCUMENTS

Directive (EU) 2015/413 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2015 facilitating cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences (OJ L 68, 13.3.2015, pp. 9-25)

Directive 2014/53/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to the making available on the market of radio equipment and repealing Directive 1999/5/EC (OJ L 153, 22.5.2014, pp. 62-106)

Successive amendments to Directive 2014/53/EU have been incorporated into the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

Directive 2014/30/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to electromagnetic compatibility (recast) (OJ L 96, 29.3.2014, pp. 79-106)

See consolidated version.

last update 21.06.2019

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