Ireland missed EU deadline on new road freight transport rules

Ireland has missed a deadline to implement new EU rules aimed at decarbonising road freight transport. The European Commission is sending a letter of formal notice to 16 member states, including Ireland, who have failed to communicate the full transposition into national law of the amended Eurovignette Directive. Adopted originally in 1999, the Directive 1999/62/EC (Eurovignette) sets common rules on distance-based charges (tolls) and time-based user charges (vignettes) for the use of road infrastructure.

These rules stipulate that the cost of constructing, operating, and maintaining infrastructure can be recovered through tolls and vignettes. It was amended through Directive (EU) 2022/362 to introduce a new system requiring member states to impose payments based on the CO2 emissions of heavy-duty vehicles. This measure contributes to decarbonising road freight transport by encouraging the deployment of heavy-duty vehicles with lower CO2 emissions.

The amendments also extended the existing rules to include passenger cars and small heavy-duty vehicles.

A total of 16 member states -- Belgium, Bulgaria, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Slovakia -- failed to communicate full transposition into national law of the Directive by the deadline of 25 March 2024.

The member states in question now have two months to reply to the letters of formal notice and complete their transposition, or the Commission may decide to issue a reasoned opinion.