Road transport: ecopoints for heavy vehicles transiting through Austria for 2004

The Council's common position as adopted by qualified majority - the Austrian, Belgian, Italian and Dutch delegations indicated that they were unable to support this compromise. The Council was not in a position to accept any of the European Parliament's amendments. In relation to the Commission's proposal, the Council agreed to the establishment of a "transitional transit system" for 2004. The Council also agreed that this system be extended to 2005 and 2006 in case the Eurovignette proposal on charging for the use of infrastructure has not been adopted by 31 December 2004 and 31 December 2005, respectively. However, the Council introduced a number of changes in its common position on the draft Regulation. In order to promote the use of environmentally friendly lorries, the Council prohibited the transit of EURO 0 vehicles, with the exception of those registered in Greece or Portugal - taking account of the structure of the heavy goods vehicle fleet in these Member States - and of certain highly specialised vehicles of high cost and with a long economic life span. Furthermore, the transit of EURO 4 standard vehicles (the cleanest vehicles) will not be subjected to the transitional transit system. However, in case of an extension of the system to 2005 and 2006, the Commission should undertake an analysis of the transit of EURO 4 standard vehicles and reduce the amount of available ecopoints within the respective quotum bands as set out Annex 1 of the Council common position. In the case of no transit of EURO 4 standard vehicles, the amount in the maximum quotum band would be respected; in the case of transit of EURO 4 standard vehicles, the amount of points to be distributed as from 2005 would be adjusted downwards, in accordance with the findings of the Commission's analysis, within the limits of the corresponding minimum quotum band.�