EU Tells Slovenia To End Discriminatory Toll

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

03 October 2008

The Commission has sent Slovenia a formal notice to end discriminatory treatment of occasional users on Slovenian Toll roads.

The commission's action follows complaints from European tourist organisation and is not the first time that the EU has been forced to take such steps with a Member State. In the past similar positions have been taken with Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania.

The issue concerns the flexibility of payment options for toll road usage. Normally toll roads offer options priced for short-term or occasional users. This is deemed to be discriminatory to foreign nationals that need to transit through Slovenia and that are therefore required to pay for a much longer pass than they actually need. Only annual and half year 'vignettes' are currently on offer, following changes made by the Slovenian Transport Law that entered into force in July.

The commission summarised the situation:

"Under European law any discrimination on the grounds of nationality are prohibited, including unequal treatment which is not explicitly tied to nationality but which by the application of other criteria of differentiation, leads in fact to the same result. The EU legal framework for road charging does not cover passenger cars or motorcycles and Member States can set up their own systems of tolling. Members States are however obliged to respect general principles enshrined in the EC Treaty."

"A letter of formal notice is the first formal step in the infringement procedure. Following the response from the Slovenian authorities the Commission will decide on the further steps to be taken, including a seizing of the European Court of Justice as an ultimate step."

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