Directive 1999/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 1999 on the charging of vehicles for the use of road infrastructures

This Directive applies to:

1. vehicle taxes imposed on heavy goods vehicles;

2. tolls and user charges imposed on vehicles.

This Directive shall not apply to vehicles used exclusively in the non-European territories of the Member States.

This Directive shall not apply to vehicles registered in the Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla, the Azores or Madeira carrying out transport operations exclusively in those territories or between those territories and, respectively, mainland Spain and mainland Portugal.

For the purposes of this Directive:

1. ‘trans-European road network’ means the road transport infrastructure referred to in Chapter II, Section 3, of Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽²⁾, as illustrated by maps in Annex I to that Regulation;

2. ‘core trans-European transport network’ means the transport infrastructure identified in accordance with Chapter III of Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013;

3. ‘construction costs’ means the costs related to construction, including, where appropriate, the financing costs, of any of the following:

   1. new infrastructure or new infrastructure improvements, including significant structural repairs;

   2. infrastructure or infrastructure improvements, including significant structural repairs, completed no more than 30 years before 10 June 2008, where tolling arrangements were already in place on 10 June 2008, or completed no more than 30 years before the establishment of any new tolling arrangements introduced after 10 June 2008; or

   3. infrastructure or infrastructure improvements completed before the time limits referred to in point (b), where:

      1. a Member State has established a tolling system which provides for the recovery of these costs by means of a contract with a tolling system operator, or other legal acts having equivalent effect, which entered into force before 10 June 2008, or

      2. a Member State can demonstrate that the case for building the infrastructure in question depended on its having a design lifetime in excess of 30 years;

4. ‘financing costs’ means interest on borrowings and return on any equity funding contributed by shareholders;

5. ‘significant structural repairs’ means structural repairs excluding those repairs no longer of any current benefit to road users, in particular where the repair work has been replaced by further road resurfacing or other construction work;

6. ‘motorway’ means a road specially designed and built for motor traffic, which does not serve properties bordering on it, and which meets the following criteria:

   1. it is provided, except at special points or temporarily, with separate carriageways for the two directions of traffic, separated from each other either by a dividing strip not intended for traffic or, exceptionally, by other means;

   2. it does not cross at grade with any road, railway or tramway track, bicycle path or footpath; and

   3. it is specifically designated as a motorway;

7. ‘toll’ means a specified amount payable in respect of a vehicle based on the distance travelled on a given infrastructure and on the type of the vehicle, the payment of which confers the right for that vehicle to use the infrastructures, and consisting of one or more of the following charges:

   1. an infrastructure charge;

   2. a congestion charge; or

   3. an external-cost charge;

8. ‘infrastructure charge’ means a charge levied for the purpose of recovering the construction, the maintenance, the operation and the development costs related to infrastructure incurred in a Member State;

9. ‘external-cost charge’ means a charge levied for the purpose of recovering the costs related to one or more of the following:

   1. traffic-based air pollution;

   2. traffic-based noise pollution; or

   3. traffic-based CO2 emissions;

10. ‘cost of traffic-based air pollution’ means the cost of the harm to human health and of the environmental damage caused by the release of particulate matter and of ozone precursors, such as NOx and volatile organic compounds, in the course of the operation of a vehicle;

11. ‘cost of traffic-based noise pollution’ means the cost of the harm to human health and of the environmental damage caused by the noise emitted by the vehicles or created by their interaction with the road surface;

12. ‘cost of traffic-based CO2 emissions’ means the cost of the damage caused by the release of CO2 in the course of the operation of a vehicle;

13. ‘congestion’ means a situation where traffic volumes approach or exceed road capacity;

14. ‘congestion charge’ means a charge which is levied on vehicles for the purpose of recovering the congestion costs incurred in a Member State and of reducing congestion;

15. ‘weighted average infrastructure charge’ means the total revenue from an infrastructure charge over a given period divided by the number of heavy-duty vehicle kilometres travelled on the road sections subject to that charge during that period;

16. ‘user charge’ means a specified amount payment of which confers the right for a vehicle to use for a given period the infrastructures referred to in Article 7(1) and (2);

17. ‘vehicle’ means a motor vehicle, with four or more wheels, or an articulated vehicle combination intended or used for the carriage by road of passengers or goods;

18. ‘heavy-duty vehicle’ means a vehicle with a technically permissible maximum laden mass exceeding 3,5 tonnes;

19. ‘heavy goods vehicle’ means a heavy-duty vehicle intended for the carriage of goods;

20. ‘coach’ and ‘bus’ mean a heavy-duty vehicle intended for the carriage of more than eight passengers in addition to the driver;

21. ‘light-duty vehicle’ means a vehicle with a technically permissible maximum laden mass not exceeding 3,5 tonnes;

22. ‘passenger car’ means a light-duty vehicle intended for the carriage of not more than eight passengers in addition to the driver;

23. ‘vehicle of historical interest’ means a vehicle of historical interest as defined in Article 3, point 7, of Directive 2014/45/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽³⁾;

24. ‘minibus’ means a light-duty vehicle intended for the carriage of more than eight passengers in addition to the driver;

25. ‘motor caravan’ means a vehicle with living accommodation space which contains seats and a table, sleeping accommodation, whether separate or converted from the seating, cooking facilities and storage facilities;

26. ‘light commercial vehicle’ means a light-duty vehicle intended for the carriage of goods;

27. ‘van’ means a light-duty vehicle within the meaning of Part C, point 4.2, of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁴⁾;

28. ‘CO2 emissions’ of a heavy-duty vehicle means its specific CO2 emissions provided in point 2.3 of its Customer Information file as defined in Part II of Annex IV to Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2400⁽⁵⁾;

29. ‘zero-emission vehicle’ means:

    1. a zero-emission heavy-duty vehicle as defined in Article 3, point 11, of Regulation (EU) 2019/1242 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁶⁾; or

    2. any passenger car, minibus or light commercial vehicle without an internal combustion engine;

30. ‘low-emission heavy-duty vehicle’ means:

    1. a low emission heavy-duty vehicle as defined in Article 3, point 12 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1242; or

    2. a heavy-duty vehicle not covered by Article 2(1), points (a) to(d), of that Regulation, with CO2 emissions lower than 50 % of the reference CO2 emissions of its vehicle group, other than a zero-emission vehicle;

31. ‘transport operator’ means any undertaking transporting goods or passengers by road;

32. ‘vehicle of the ‘Euro 0’, ‘Euro I’, ‘Euro II’, ‘Euro III’, ‘Euro IV’, ‘Euro V’, ‘EEV’, ‘Euro VI’ emission class’ means a heavy-duty vehicle that complies with the emission limits set out in Annex 0;

33. ‘type of heavy-duty vehicle’ means a category into which a heavy-duty vehicle falls according to the number of its axles, its dimensions or mass, or other vehicle classification factors reflecting road damage, such as the road damage classification system set out in Annex IV, provided that the classification system used is based on vehicle characteristics which appear in the vehicle documentation used in all Member States or which are visually apparent;

34. ‘vehicle sub-group’ means vehicle sub-group as defined in Article 3, point 8, of Regulation (EU) 2019/1242;

35. ‘vehicle group’ means a grouping of vehicles listed in Table 1 of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2017/2400;

36. ‘reporting period of the year Y’ means reporting period of the year Y as defined in Article 3, point 3, of Regulation (EU) 2019/1242;

37. ‘emission reduction trajectory’, for the reporting period of a year (Y) and vehicle sub-group (sg), namely ETY,sg, means the product of the annual CO2 emissions reduction factor (R-ETY) times the reference CO2 emissions (rCO2sg) of the sub-group (sg), namely ETY,sg = R-ETY x rCO2sg; for years Y ≤ 2030, R-ETY and rCO2sg are both determined in accordance with point 5.1 of Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2019/1242; for years Y > 2030, R-ETY is 0,70; rCO2sg applies as adjusted by delegated acts adopted in accordance with Article 11(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1242 for the reporting periods commencing after the respective dates of application of those delegated acts;

38. ‘reference CO2 emissions of a vehicle group’ means:

    1. for vehicles covered by Regulation (EU) 2019/1242, the amount calculated in accordance with the formula in point 3 of Annex I to that Regulation;

    2. for vehicles not covered by Regulation (EU) 2019/1242, the average value of all CO2 emissions of vehicles in that vehicle group, reported in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/956 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁷⁾ for the first reporting period, which will start after the date on which the registration, sale or entry into service of vehicles in that vehicle group, that do not comply with the obligations referred to in Article 9 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2400, is prohibited in accordance with Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2400;

39. ‘concession contract’ means a works concession or a service concession as defined in Article 5, point 1(a) or (b), of Directive 2014/23/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁸⁾;

40. ‘concession toll’ means a toll levied by a concessionaire under a concession contract;

41. ‘substantially amended tolling or charging arrangement’ means a tolling or charging arrangement, where the amendment of rates is expected to increase revenues in excess of 10 % in comparison to the previous accounting year, excluding the effect of increase in traffic and after correcting for inflation measured by changes in the EU-wide Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), and excluding energy and unprocessed food, as published by the Commission (Eurostat).

For the purposes of paragraph 1, point 2:

1. in any event, the proportion of the construction costs to be taken into account shall not exceed the proportion of the current design lifetime period of infrastructure components still to run on 10 June 2008 or on the date when the new tolling arrangements are introduced, where this is a later date;

2. costs of infrastructure or infrastructure improvements may include any specific expenditure on infrastructure designed to reduce nuisance related to noise, to introduce innovative technologies or to improve road safety and actual payments made by the infrastructure operator corresponding to objective environmental elements such as protection against soil contamination.

Without prejudice to Article 7da(3), Member States may treat a motor caravan either as a coach or bus, or as a passenger car.

The vehicle taxes referred to in Article are as follows:

• Belgium:

  • taxe de circulation sur les véhicules automobiles/ verkeersbelasting op de autovoertuigen,

• Bulgaria:

  • данък върху превозните средства,

• Czech Republic:

  • silniční daň,

• Denmark:

  • vaegtafgift of motorkeretrajer m.v.,

• Germany:

  • Kraftfahrzeugsteuer,

• Estonia:

  • raskeveokimaks,

• Greece:

  • Τέλη κυκλοφορίας,

• Spain:

  1. impuesto sobre vehiculos de traccion mecanica;

  2. impuesto sobre actividades economicas (solely as regards the amount of the levies charged for motor vehicles),

• France:

  1. taxe spéciale sur certains véhicules routiers;

  2. taxe différentielle sur les véhicules a moteur,

• Croatia:

  • godišnja naknada za uporabu javnih cesta koja se plaća pri registraciji motornih i priključnih vozila,

• Ireland:

  • vehicle excise duty,

• Italy:

  1. tassa automobilistica;

  2. addizionale del 5 % sulfa tassa automobilistica,

• Cyprus:

  • Τέλη Κυκλοφορίας Οχημάτων,

• Latvia:

  • transportlīdzekļa ikgadējā nodeva,

• Lithuania:

  1. Transporto priemonių savininkų ar valdytojų naudotojo mokestis;

  2. Mokestis už Lietuvoje įregistruotas krovinines transporto priemones,

• Luxembourg:

  • taxe sur les véhicules automoteurs,

• Hungary:

  • gépjárműadó,

• Malta:

  • liċenzja tat-triq/road licence fee,

• Netherlands:

  • motorrijtuigenbelasting,

• Austria:

  • Kraftfahrzeugsteuer,

• Poland:

  • podatek od środków transportowych,

• Portugal:

  1. imposto de camionagem;

  2. imposto de circulaçao,

• Romania:

  • Taxa asupra mijloacelor de transport,

• Slovenia:

  • letno povračilo za uporabo javnih cest za motorna in priklopna vozila,

• Slovakia:

  • cestná daň,

• Finland:

  • varsinainen ajoneuvovero/egentlig fordonsskatt,

• Sweden:

  • fordonsskatt,

• United Kingdom:

  1. vehicle excise duty;

  2. motor vehicles licence.

Member States which replace any tax listed in paragraph l with another tax of the same kind shall notify the Commission, which shall make the necessary amendments.