Today the European Parliament's Transport Committee (TRAN) voted the controversial Eurovignette Directive at its second reading before entering once again into negotiations with the Council by next April 18th to try to reach an agreement, avoiding the conciliation procedure.

"We backed a realistic text which should pave the way to green and improved road freight transport, on which we hope to find an agreement with the Council." said Dirk Sterckx (OpenVld, Belgium), ALDE spokesperson.

"Considering that today three quarter of goods in Europe is transported by road we must be realistic in reviewing the legislation around it. We ask for recognising the principle of "polluter-pays" by internalising external costs such as air and noise pollution, to ensure that the prices of heavy goods road transport better reflect their real cost to society."

"Even more important is where we want these revenues generated from external-cost charges to be allocated." stressed Sterckx. The transport  committee recommends that the generated revenues shall be earmarked so that environmental damage can gradually be reduced.  "Applying earmarking to the Eurovignette charges would make it a serious proposal to improve our transport infrastructure and reduce road transport pollution. That is why we believe they must be pumped back to benefit the transport sector and to optimise the transport system."

While touching upon the issue of interoperability, Sterckx concluded: "In a single market, great operational differences are detrimental to competitiveness. We cannot allow the prevailing of national approaches to what should be a single EU sector."