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Luxembourg: ECJ decides, truck toll must not include costs for traffic police

2020-10-28T10:08:53.406Z


Another defeat for Andreas Scheuer: The European Court of Justice has ruled that the costs of the traffic police cannot be financed through the German truck toll. A Polish forwarding company had sued.


Icon: enlarge

Truck drives past a toll pillar (archive image): Police as part of the infrastructure?

Photo: 

Sebastian Gollnow / dpa

With the car toll, CSU politician Andreas Scheuer has already suffered a heavy defeat at the European Court of Justice.

Now Europe's highest judges have also curtailed the collection of the truck toll in the area of ​​responsibility of the Federal Transport Minister.

According to the decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg, Germany is not allowed to include the costs of the traffic police when calculating the truck toll.

This falls under sovereign powers of the state and not under operating costs.

According to the ECJ, only the infrastructure costs, i.e. for the construction, operation, maintenance and expansion of the relevant transport network, must be taken into account when setting the tolls.

"Police activities, however, are the responsibility of the state, which exercises sovereign powers and does not just act as the operator of the road infrastructure," it was said to explain.

The costs of the traffic police could therefore not be regarded as operating costs within the meaning of the Directive on the collection of charges.

7.5 billion euros in revenue from the truck toll

A Polish forwarding company had sued.

She is demanding repayment of German motorway tolls from 2010 and 2011. From her point of view, the toll rates violate the EU road cost directive.

The most important point of contention was the cost of the traffic police.

The Higher Administrative Court in Münster asked the European Court of Justice to clarify several questions in this test case.

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Transport Minister Scheuer: The truck toll is now also causing him problems

Photo: Jens Schicke / imago images / Jens Schicke

The truck toll on federal motorways was introduced in 2005.

According to the Ministry of Transport, this has brought about a system change - away from taxation and towards user financing of highway construction.

Because heavy trucks in particular wear out the roads.

The truck toll has now been extended to all federal highways.

It applies to trucks from 7.5 tons.

There is a differentiation according to the pollutant emissions of the vehicles.

According to the calculation of the road costs for the federal trunk road network for the years 2018 to 2022, operating, maintenance and toll collection costs as well as expenses for the police are an essential part of the infrastructure costs.

The ECJ had overturned plans for a German car toll in June 2019 because they discriminated against drivers from abroad.

Minister Scheuer is therefore under heavy pressure.

An investigative committee of the Bundestag is running due to possible violations of budgetary and public procurement law.

In the case of the negotiated truck toll, the ECJ expert Henrik Saugmandsgaard Øe had already found that the costs for the traffic police did not belong there.

The court now followed the opinion of the expert.

The total revenue from the truck toll amounted to around 7.5 billion euros last year.

Almost 50 million went to the municipalities.

In times of the corona pandemic, falling revenues are expected this year due to lower mileage.

Icon: The mirror

svv / dpa / AFP

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2020-10-28

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