European Communities (Charging of Heavy Goods Vehicles For the Use of Certain Infrastructures) Regulations, 2009

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR SI 87/2009
• Year: 2009

S.I. No. 87 of 2009

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (CHARGING OF HEAVY GOODS VEHICLES FOR THE USE OF CERTAIN INFRASTRUCTURES) REGULATIONS 2009

Notice of the making of this Statutory Instrument was published in

“Iris Oifigiúil” of 27th March, 2009.

I, NOEL DEMPSEY, Minister for Transport, in exercise of powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving effect to Directive No. 1999/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 1999 1 as amended by Directive No. 2006/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 2 and Directive No. 2006/103/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 November 2006 3 hereby make the following Regulations:

Citation

1. These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Charging of Heavy Goods Vehicles for the Use of Certain Infrastructures) Regulations 2009.

Interpretation

2. In these Regulations “the Eurovignette Directive” means Directive No. 1999/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 1999 on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures, as amended by Directive 2006/38/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 and Council Directive 2006/103/EC of 20 November 2006.

3. In these Regulations any reference to a Regulation is a reference to a Regulation of these Regulations, unless it is indicated that reference to some other Regulations is intended.

4. In these Regulations references to a Schedule shall be a reference to a Schedule of these Regulations.

5. In these Regulations references to the Minister shall be a reference to the Minister for Transport.

6. A word or expression that is used in these Regulations and is also used in the Eurovignette Directive has, unless the contrary intention appears, the same meaning in these Regulations as it has in the Eurovignette Directive.

7. For the purposes of these Regulations, the following definitions shall apply:

“concession contract” means a “public works concession” or a “service concession” as defined in Article 1 of Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the coordination of procedures for the award of public works contracts, public supply contracts and public service contracts;

“concession toll” means a toll levied by a concessionaire under a concession contract;

“construction costs” means the costs related to construction including, where appropriate, the financing costs, of:

(a) new infrastructure or new infrastructure improvements (including significant structural repairs), or

(b) infrastructure or infrastructure improvements (including significant structural repairs) completed no more than 30 years before 10 June 2008, where tolling arrangements are already in place on 10 June 2008, or completed no more than 30 years before the establishment of any new tolling arrangements introduced after 10 June 2008; costs regarding infrastructure or infrastructure improvements completed before these time limits may also be considered as construction costs where:

(i) a tolling system has been established which provides for the recovery of these costs by means of a contract with a tolling system operator, or other legal acts having equivalent effect, which entered into force before 10 June 2008, or

(ii) it can be demonstrated that the case for building the infrastructure in question depended on its having a design lifetime in excess of 30 years.

In any event, the proportion of the construction costs to be taken into account shall not exceed the proportion of the current design lifetime period of infrastructure components still to run on 10 June 2008 or on the date when the new tolling arrangements are introduced, where this is a later date.

Costs of infrastructure or infrastructure improvements may include any specific expenditure on infrastructure designed to reduce nuisance related to noise or to improve road safety and actual payments made by the infrastructure operator corresponding to objective environmental elements such as protection against soil contamination;

“financing costs” means interest on borrowings and/or return on any equity funding contributed by shareholders;

“significant structural repairs” means structural repairs excluding those repairs no longer of any current benefit to road users, e.g. where the repair work has been replaced by further road resurfacing or other construction work;

“toll” means a specified amount payable for a vehicle travelling a given distance on the infrastructures referred to in Regulation 8; the amount shall be based on the distance travelled and the type of vehicle;

“trans-European road network” means the road network defined in Section 2 of Annex I to Decision No. 1692/96/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 1996 on Community guidelines for the development of the trans-European transport network as illustrated by maps. The maps refer to the corresponding sections mentioned in the operative part of and/or in Annex II to that Decision;

“type of vehicle” means a category into which a vehicle falls according to the number of its axles, its dimensions or weight, or other vehicle classification factors reflecting road damage, e.g., the road damage classification system set out in Schedule 4, provided that the classification system used is based on vehicle characteristics which either appear in the vehicle documentation used in all Member States or are visually apparent;

“user charge” means a specified amount, payment of which confers the right for a vehicle to use for a given period the infrastructures referred to in Regulation 8;

“vehicle” means a motor vehicle or articulated vehicle combination intended or used exclusively for the carriage by road of goods and having a maximum permissible laden weight of over 3.5 tonnes;

“vehicle of the ‘EURO 0’, ‘EURO I’, EURO II’, ‘EURO III’, ‘EURO IV’, ‘EURO V’, ‘EEV’ category” means a vehicle that complies with the emission limits set out in Schedule 1;

“weighted average toll” means the total revenue raised through tolls over a given period divided by the number of vehicle kilometres travelled on a given network subject to tolling during that period, both the revenue and the vehicle kilometres being calculated for the vehicles to which tolls apply.

Tolls and user charges

8. Tolls and user charges may be maintained or introduced on the trans-European road network, or on parts of that network providing that they comply with the conditions set out in Regulations 10 to 22. This shall be without prejudice to the right, in compliance with the Treaty, to apply tolls and/or user charges on roads not included in the trans-European road network, inter alia on parallel roads to which traffic may be diverted from the trans-European road network and/or which are in direct competition with certain parts of that network, or to other types of motor vehicle not covered by the definition of “vehicle” on the trans-European road network, provided that the imposition of tolls and/or user charges on such roads does not discriminate against international traffic and does not result in distortions of competition between operators. Tolls may be levied at a particular point only on the infrastructure to which the toll relates.

9. Where tolls and/or user charges are maintained or introduced only on parts of the trans-European road network, the resulting exemptions for the other parts (for reasons such as their isolation or low levels of congestion or pollution or where essential for the introduction of a new tolling arrangement) shall not result in any discrimination against international traffic.

10. (1) Tolls and/or user charges may be maintained or introduced which are applicable only to vehicles having a maximum permissible laden weight of not less than 12 tonnes. Where tolls and/or user charges are applied to vehicles below this weight limit, the provisions of these Regulations shall apply.

(2) Tolls and/or user charges shall be applied to all vehicles from 2012.

(3) A derogation may be made from the requirement set out in (2) where it is considered that the extension of tolling to vehicles of less than 12 tonnes would:

(a) create significant adverse effects on the free flow of traffic, the environment, noise levels, congestion or health, or

(b) involve administrative costs which would be more than 30% of additional revenue generated.

11. Tolls and user charges may not both be imposed at the same time on any given category of vehicle for the use of a single road section. However, tolls may also be imposed on networks where user charges are levied for the use of bridges, tunnels and mountain passes.

12. Tolls and user charges may not discriminate, directly or indirectly, on the grounds of nationality of the haulier, the country or place of establishment of the haulier or of registration of the vehicle, or the origin or destination of the transport operation.

13. Reduced toll rates or user charges or exemptions from the obligation to pay tolls or user charges may apply:

(a) for vehicles exempted in the State from the requirement to install and use recording equipment under Council Regulation (EEC) No. 3821/85 of 20 December 1985 on recording equipment in road transport and

(b) for vehicles used for national or civil defence purposes, by fire and other emergency services and by the Garda Síochána, and vehicles used for road maintenance and

(c) for vehicles which are used only occasionally on the public roads in the State and are used by natural or legal persons whose main occupation is not the carriage of goods, provided that the transport operations carried out by these vehicles do not cause distortions of competition, and subject to the Commission’s agreement.

14. (1) As charging structures involving discounts or reductions in...