Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Directive 2004/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on the interoperability of electronic road toll systems in the Community^f1, and in particular Article 4 thereof,

Whereas:

Directive 2004/52/EC requires the Commission to define the European Electronic Toll Service (EETS) in accordance with the procedure referred to in its Article 5(2).

A single contract with one EETS Provider should allow EETS Users to pay their tolls in all EETS domains of the European road network, in accordance with Article 3(1) of Directive 2004/52/EC by means, among others, of a single on-board equipment (OBE), which can be used on all EETS domains.

This decision covers the exchange of information between Member States, toll chargers, service providers and road users in view to ensure the correct declaration of tolls due within the context of EETS.

The introduction of EETS will entail the processing of personal data, which shall be carried out in strict accordance with relevant Community rules, as set out, inter alia, in Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council^f2 and Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council^f3.

Toll Chargers have to give access to their EETS domain to EETS Providers on a non-discriminatory basis.

To ensure transparency and non-discriminatory access to EETS domains for all EETS Providers, Toll Chargers shall publish all the necessary information relative to access rights in an EETS domain statement.

The EETS is based on the principles of transparency and efficient and fair pricing.

A conciliation procedure has to be ensured in view to settle disputes between Toll Chargers and EETS Providers during contract negotiations and in their contractual relationships. National Conciliation Bodies should be consulted by Toll Chargers and EETS Providers in search of a dispute settlement relating to non-discriminatory access to EETS domains.

The efficient management of a fair and non-discriminatory access to EETS, including the avoidance of unnecessary administrative burden, requires close cooperation between the Member States' Conciliation Bodies^f4 as regards the application of these Community rules, and as regards the handling of eventual appeals, notwithstanding the possibility of judicial review.

Toll Chargers may have different charging policies relative to different categories of users and/or vehicles and shall not discriminate between EETS Users, in the sense of Directive 2006/123/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2006 on services in the internal market (the General Service Directive)^f5.

EETS Users will pay no more toll than they would for the corresponding national/local toll.

For national or local purposes, Toll Chargers may keep or set up their specific national or local services, with manual, automatic or electronic systems. EETS is a complementary service to the national or local electronic toll services of the Member States for the payment of toll, but where Member States have toll systems, they shall take the necessary measures to increase the use of electronic toll systems and endeavour to ensure that at least 50 % of traffic flow in each toll station can use electronic toll systems.

Tolling policies are based on European, national or local legislation; their application is of the responsibility of Toll Chargers. Each Member State decides in a non-discriminatory way on toll declaration monitoring, in conformity with European legislation where applicable. EETS shall provide interoperable means for monitoring whether a toll is being declared correctly for vehicles allegedly using EETS.

Tolling technology permits, to the benefit of road safety and decrease of congestion, the collection of tolls without use of physical barriers to guarantee collection.

Toll income generally contributes to finance the construction and maintenance costs of transport infrastructures; hauliers not paying the tolls would deprive Member States and the Community of financial resources to this end and would gain an unfair competitive advantage in comparison to hauliers who pay; toll evasion could undermine transport policy objectives in terms of traffic, congestion and pollution management.

It is appropriate to define essential requirements for the whole of the Community which will apply to EETS.

EETS has technical and organisational aspects. Essential requirements must be specified for both aspects to enable EETS interoperability to work from all points of view. Technical specifications are needed for the whole of the Community, particularly in respect of constituents and interfaces, in order to meet technical essential requirements.

To comply with the appropriate provisions on procurement procedures in the road sector and in particular Directive 2004/18/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council^f6, the contracting authorities should include technical specifications in the contract notices or in other documentation, such as general documents or the terms and conditions for each contract. Technical specifications may be defined by reference to certain documents; to this end it is necessary to build up a body of technical specifications in order to serve as references.

Within the meaning of Directive 2004/18/EC, a technical specification can be defined among others by reference to a European standard or a harmonised standard, a European technical approval or a common technical specification. Harmonised standards are to be drawn up by a European standardisation body such as the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation (CENELEC) or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), to the order of the Commission, and their references published in the Official Journal of the European Union ^f7.

An international system of standardisation capable of generating standards which are actually used by those involved in international trade and which meet the requirements of Community policy would be in the Community's interest. The European standardisation bodies must therefore continue their cooperation with the international standardisation bodies.

Further technical specifications or other standards might have to be defined at a later stage. These specifications should help to complete the EETS requirements that have been harmonised at Community level.

The procedures governing the assessment of conformity to specifications and of suitability for use of EETS interoperability constituents should be based on the use of the modules covered by Decision No 768/2008/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council^f8. As far as possible and in order to promote industrial development, it is appropriate to draw up procedures involving a system of quality assurance. These procedures must enable the bodies notified to assess the conformity to specifications and suitability for use of EETS interoperability constituents to be certain that, at the design, construction, putting into service stages and during operation, the result is in line with the regulations and technical and operational provisions in force. It must also enable manufacturers to be able to count upon equality of treatment whatever the country.

These notified bodies must coordinate their decisions as closely as possible.

Conformity to specifications may prove insufficient to assess field operational interoperability; a CE marking on the suitability for use is therefore necessary.

Directive 2004/52/EC, Article 4(4), foresees that the Commission takes decisions relating to the definition of EETS in accordance with Council Decision 1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission^f9. Where appropriate, the Annex to Directive 2004/52/EC may be modified for technical reasons in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 5(2) of that Directive.

The present decision is based on the work done in pan-European research projects^f10 supported by the Commission involving major stakeholders, and in Expert Groups set-up by the European Commission, which aimed to define precisely EETS content and organisational structure.

Given the importance of EETS deployment it is useful that the Commission carries out a review 18 months after the entry into force of this decision. In view of the conclusions of the mid-term review relative to the progress achieved in EETS deployment, the Commission assisted by the Electronic Toll Committee shall propose any necessary measure.

The measures provided for in this Decision are in accordance with the opinion of the Electronic Toll Committee established by Article 5(1) of Directive 2004/52/EC,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: