By Henrietta Billings - 13th April 2005
Controversial EU road toll proposals will top the agenda for a meeting of Europe’s transport ministers – and agreement is within reach.
The Luxembourg EU presidency is keen to strike a deal on a complicated and difficult dossier, despite failure at three separate councils of transport ministers in 2004.
Dispute centres on how far the tolls should be marked-up in ecologically sensitive areas, and whether they should be extended to urban areas.
National governments also have concerns about construction costs and the variation of toll levels across different EU countries.
But this time EU sources are more optimistic about reaching a deal next week on the proposals which will dominate the transport minister's agenda on Thursday April 21.
“After last week's meeting of EU ambassadors, the presidency was confident that a deal might be reached,” said a source.
“Ministers will be holding bilateral discussions between themselves and with the commission between now and the council.”
“It’s not 100 per cent sure, but this time there could be an agreement.”
French concerns about how new proposals will affect contracts with third party private road builders - which helped block an agreement in October - have been addressed in the latest EU presidency text.
And a spat over the ring fencing of money raised from the tolls has also been resolved - with member states now free to spend the 'tax' as they see fit.
The April transport council is expected to be the last chance for ministers to find an agreement on the current proposals.
If discussions remain deadlocked after next week, proposals are set to be scrapped and commission transport officials will go back to the drawing board.
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