Introductory text

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Directive 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^f1, and in particular Article 6 thereof,

Whereas:

According to Article 6(2)(b) of Directive 1999/62/EC, Member States may apply reduced rates or exemptions for vehicles which travel only occasionally on the public roads of the Member State of registration 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. This reduction or exemption is subject to the Commission’s agreement.

France has requested the Commission to renew until 31 December 2014 its agreement on the exemption provided in Commission Decision 2005/449/EC^f2 from the vehicle tax according to Directive 1999/62/EC for vehicles of 12 tonnes or more, which are used exclusively in connection with public and industrial works in France.

The conditions foreseen by Article 6(2)(b) of Directive 1999/62/EC are fulfilled, as these vehicles do not permanently use public roads, are not used to carry goods and furthermore as exempting these vehicles from vehicle tax does not cause a distortion of competition because they cannot be used for carriage of any goods other than those permanently installed at the vehicle and used for their own activity.

In order to enable the Commission to review the exemption from the vehicle tax rules, the agreement should be given for a limited time.

The exemption requested by France should therefore be approved,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION: