vehicle taxes imposed on heavy goods vehicles;

tolls and user charges imposed on vehicles.

‘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 ( 1 ), as illustrated by maps in Annex I to that Regulation;

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

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

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

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excluding those repairs no longer of any current benefit to road users, in particular where the repair work has been replaced by further road resurfacing or other construction work;

‘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:

‘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:

‘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;

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

‘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;

‘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;

‘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;

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

‘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;

‘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;

‘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);

‘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;

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

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

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

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

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

‘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 ( 2 );

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

‘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;

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

‘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 ( 3 );

‘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 ( 4 );

‘zero-emission vehicle’ means:

‘low-emission heavy-duty vehicle’ means:

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

‘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;

‘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;

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

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

‘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;

‘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;

‘reference CO2 emissions of a vehicle group’ means:

‘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 ( 7 );

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

‘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).

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;

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.

vehicles used for national or civil defence purposes, by fire and other emergency services and by the police, and vehicles used for road maintenance;

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, and subject to the Commission's agreement.

The Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission, may authorise a Member State to maintain further exemptions from or reductions in taxes on vehicles on the grounds of specific policies of a socio-economic nature or linked to that State's infrastructure. Such exemptions or reductions may apply only to vehicles registered in that Member State which carry out transport operations exclusively inside a well-defined part of its territory.

Any Member State wishing to maintain such an exemption or reduction shall inform the Commission thereof and shall also forward to it all necessary information. The Commission shall inform the other Member States of the proposed exemption or reduction within one month.

The Council shall be deemed to have authorised maintenance of the proposed exemption or reduction if, within a period of two months from the date on which the other Member States were informed in accordance with the first subparagraph, neither the Commission nor any Member State has requested that the matter be examined by the Council.

the nationality of the road user;

the Member State or the third country of establishment of the transport operator;

the Member State or the third country of registration of the vehicle; or

the origin or destination of the transport operation.

heavy-duty vehicles exempted from the requirement to install and use recording equipment under Regulation (EU) No 165/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council ( 9 );

heavy goods vehicles with a technically permissible maximum laden mass exceeding 3,5 tonnes and less than 7,5 tonnes used for carrying materials, equipment or machinery for the driver’s use in the course of the driver’s work, or for delivering goods which are produced on a craft basis, where the transport is not effected for hire or reward;

any vehicle covered by the conditions set out in Article 6(2), points (a) and (b), or any vehicle used or owned by persons with disabilities; and

zero-emission vehicles with a technically permissible maximum laden mass up to 4,25 tonnes.

involve disproportionate administrative, investment and operating costs compared to the expected revenue or benefits, which such a toll would generate, for example due to the limited length of the road sections concerned or the relatively low population density or the relatively low traffic; or

lead to the diversion of traffic with negative impacts on road safety or on public health.

Before applying those user charges, Member States shall notify the Commission of their intention to do so. That notification shall include the reasons justifying, in light of the first subparagraph, the application of the user charge based on objective criteria and clear information on the vehicles and road sections covered by the user charge.

Member States may submit one single notification for more road sections covered by the exemptions, provided that the justification is included for each section.

create significant adverse effects on the free flow of traffic, the environment, noise levels, congestion, health, or road safety, due to traffic diversion;

involve administrative costs of more than 15 % of the additional revenue resulting from that extension; or

concern a category of vehicles which does not cause more than 10 % of the chargeable infrastructure costs.

Member States choosing to apply tolls or user charges or both only to heavy goods vehicles with a technically permissible maximum laden mass of not less than 12 tonnes shall inform the Commission of their decision together with the reasons upon which it is based.

the revenue generated from the mark-up is invested in financing the development of transport services, or in the construction or maintenance of transport infrastructure of the core trans-European transport network which contribute directly to the alleviation of the congestion or environmental damage and which are located in the same corridor as the road section on which the mark-up is applied;

the mark-up does not exceed 15 % of the weighted average infrastructure charge calculated in accordance with Article 7b(1) and Article 7e of this Directive, except where the revenue generated is invested in cross-border sections of a core network corridor identified in accordance with Chapter IV of Regulation (EU) No 1315/2013, in which case the mark-up may not exceed 25 % of that weighted average infrastructure charge, or, where two or more Member States apply a mark-up in the same corridor, in which case, upon agreement of all Member States which are part of that corridor and which neighbour the Member States in the territory of which the section of the corridor to which a mark-up is to be applied falls, that mark-up may exceed 25 % but may not exceed 50 % of that weighted average infrastructure charge;

the application of the mark-up does not result in unfair treatment of commercial traffic compared to other road users;

a description of the exact location of the mark-up and proof of a decision to finance transport infrastructure or transport services referred to in point (a) are submitted to the Commission in advance of the application of the mark-up;

the period for which the mark-up is to apply is defined and limited in advance and is consistent, in terms of the expected revenue to be raised, with the financial plans and cost-benefit analysis for the projects co-financed with the revenue from the mark-up.

the variation is transparent, made public and available to all users on equal terms;

the variation is applied according to the time of day, type of day or season;

no infrastructure charge is more than 175 % above the maximum level of the weighted average infrastructure charge as referred to in Article 7b;

the peak periods during which the higher infrastructure charges are levied for the purpose of reducing congestion do not exceed six hours per day;

the variation is devised and applied in a transparent and revenue-neutral way on a road section affected by congestion by offering reduced toll rates for road users who travel during off-peak periods and increased toll rates for road users who travel during peak hours on the same road section;

no congestion charge is levied on the road section concerned.

A Member State wishing to introduce such variation or changing an existing one shall inform the Commission thereof and provide it with the information necessary to assess whether the conditions are fulfilled.

CO2 emission class 1 – vehicles that do not belong to any of the CO2 emission classes referred to under points (b) to (e);

CO2 emission class 2 – vehicles of the vehicle sub-group sg registered for the first time in the reporting period of the year Y with CO2 emissions more than 5 % below the emission reduction trajectory for the reporting period of the year Y and the vehicle sub-group sg but not belonging to any of the CO2 emission classes referred to under points (c), (d) and (e);

CO2 emission class 3 – vehicles of the vehicle sub-group sg registered for the first time in the reporting period of the year Y with CO2 emissions more than 8 % below the emission reduction trajectory for the reporting period of the year Y and the vehicle sub-group sg not belonging to any of the CO2 emission classes referred to under points (d) and (e);

CO2 emission class 4 – low-emission heavy-duty vehicles;

CO2 emission class 5 – zero-emission vehicles.

CO2 emission class 2 – 5 % to 15 % reduction compared to the charge applicable for CO2 emission class 1;

CO2 emission class 3 – 15 % to 30 % reduction compared to the charge applicable for CO2 emission class 1;

CO2 emission class 4 – 30 % to 50 % reduction compared to the charge applicable for CO2 emission class 1;

CO2 emission class 5 – 50 % to 75 % reduction compared to the charge applicable for CO2 emission class 1.

for tolling arrangements other than those involving concession tolls:

▼M9

▼M3

for tolling arrangements involving concession tolls:

the resulting charging structure is proportionate, made public and available to users on equal terms and does not lead to additional costs being passed on to other users in the form of higher tolls;

such discounts or reductions reflect actual savings in administrative costs of the treatment of frequent users compared to occasional users;

reductions do not exceed 13 % of the infrastructure charge paid by equivalent vehicles not eligible for the discount or reduction.

payment of the common user charge shall give access to the network as defined by the participating Member States in accordance with Article 7(1) and (2);

the common user-charge rates shall be set by the participating Member States at levels that are not higher than the maximum rates referred to in Article 7a;

other Member States may join the common system;

a scale shall be worked out by the participating Member States whereby each of them shall receive a fair share of the revenues accruing from the user charge.

regulatory charges specifically designed to reduce traffic congestion or combat environmental impacts, including poor air quality, on any roads located in an urban area, including trans-European network roads crossing urban areas;

charges specifically designed to finance the construction, operation, maintenance and development of installations, embedded in or deployed along or over roads, providing energy to low- and zero-emission vehicles in motion and levied on such vehicles.

facilitating efficient pricing;

reducing road transport pollution at source;

mitigating the effects of road transport pollution at source;

improving the CO2 and energy performance of vehicles;

developing alternative infrastructure for transport users and/or expanding current capacity;

supporting the trans-European transport network;

optimising logistics;

improving road safety; and

providing secure parking places.

the evolution of charging for the use of road infrastructure, namely the networks and vehicle categories covered, including any exemption pursuant to Article 7, 7c or 7gb;

the variation of infrastructure charges or user charges according to the category of vehicle and the type of heavy-duty vehicle;

the variation of infrastructure charges or user charges according to the environmental performance of vehicles, pursuant to Article 7g, 7ga or 7gb;

where applicable, the variation of infrastructure charges according to the time of day, type of day, or season, pursuant to Article 7g(1);

the external-cost charge levied for each combination of class of vehicle, type of road and period of time;

the weighted average infrastructure charge and total revenue raised through the infrastructure charge;

the total revenue raised through external-cost charges;

the total revenue raised through congestion charges per category of vehicle;

the total revenue raised through mark-ups and on which road sections they were levied;

the total revenue raised through tolls or user charges, or, where applicable, both;

the use of revenues generated by applying this Directive, and how this use has allowed the Member State to meet the goals referred to in Article 9(2), or, where such revenues are allocated to the general budget, information on the level of expenditure allocated to road transport infrastructure and sustainable transport projects; and

the evolution of the share vehicles belonging to the various emission classes on tolled roads.