By Henrietta Billings - 17th January 2005
Controversial plans for Europe-wide truck tolls will dominate the EU presidency's transport agenda, Luxembourg's transport minister Lucien Lux has told EUpolitix.com.
Lux told this website that he will pull out all the stops to reach a deal on the 'Eurovignette Directive' at a meeting of transport ministers in April.
"I think that the Eurovignette Directive will be top of our agenda because we were very close to a compromise and an agreement at the council in October and we think that Luxembourg is in a very good neutral position to make progress on this," he said.
"We will try to find a compromise on Eurovignette at the April council."
Lux stressed that his country's EU presidency would not be seeking new proposals from the commission, despite deadlocked discussions which broke-up last year after ministers were unable to find a deal.
"We are not expecting new proposals at this stage. I agree with [European Commissioner for Transport] Jacques Barrot that we will try to move forward on the basis of the Dutch presidency proposal."
"We will ask the different countries to give us their positions and their concerns with the Dutch October compromise. I will take the plan and visit the main concerned countries," he said.
"I will try on a political level to do all that I can do to have a compromise in April."
Lux hints that he is optimistic about making progress in 2005 - after three failed attempts so far to reach a deal.
"Our neutral position gives us the capacity to find a solution under our presidency," he insists.
Negotiations over harmonised road toll plans broke down in October last year after national governments failed to agree on proposals to align national toll and road charge systems for lorries.
The most sensitive aspect of the proposals remains how the money collected from the tolls should be spent - an issue pitching peripheral states like Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus against transit countries like France and Germany.
France, Spain and Italy and others also have concerns over how the new proposals might affect their existing and future contracts with third private road builders.
Efforts to reach a deal at the council in April look set to be the last - with or without agreement.
A senior EU diplomat told EUpolitix that if no deal was reached in three months time, the rules in their current form would have to be scrapped, and new proposals sought from the commission.
"April will be the last chance to reach an agreement. If that fails it'll be back to square one."
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