Following up on the meeting of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport, Milan Šimonovský, with the European Commissioner, Jaques Barott, a meeting took place in Brussels, on Tuesday, 22 February 2005, of the representatives of the Ministry of Transport and experts of the EU Commission.  The subject of the meeting was temporary measures to decrease the excessive numbers of trucks, and the scope of subjecting the Czech Republic’s road network to a fee for freight transport, once fees are charged on the basis of usage.
 
The European Commission rejected the proposal of the Minister and the Chairman of the Government’s Legislative Council, Jaroslav Bureš.  It considered his proposal to introduce a system of so-called “usage stamps” discriminatory, as the system of checks would not be identical for domestic and foreign shippers.  The possibility of introducing the other two measures, proposed by the Ministry of Transport, were not excluded by the Commission – a special regime for vehicles exceeding 12 tonnes and a special toll for bridges and tunnels.  Negotiations of both parties’ experts will continue, but it cannot be expected that the issue of temporary measures will be resolved soon.
 
The Ministry of Transport will continue to discuss with the European Union the possibility of subjecting selected first-class roads to a fee.
 
The meetings also touched upon the European Commission’s reservations with respect to time-limited motorway coupons.  European Commission experts consider the steps which the Ministry is planning to take in connection with the introduction of usage-based fees, sufficient for resolving the problems criticised.