Unpaid road tolls soon easier to recover thanks to new electronic road toll rules
Unpaid road tolls could soon be history, as the EU is setting up a new information-sharing system to enable member states' national authorities to access each other's national vehicle registration data in order to identify owners of vehicles for which road fees have not been paid. The new system is part of the updated electronic road tolling rules formally adopted by the Council today, following a provisional deal reached with the European Parliament on 20 November 2018.
The new rules will also make electronic tolling systems more interoperable and therefore more cost-efficient and user-friendly. They will remove administrative barriers, such as burdensome approval procedures and local, non-standard technical specifications. As a result, electronic tolling providers will have easier access to the toll collection market.
Next steps
Today's Council vote concludes the legislative procedure. The European Parliament voted on 14 February 2019. The directive will be signed by both institutions and published in the EU Official Journal. It will enter into force 20 days after publication, and the new measures will become applicable 30 months after entry into force.