Road use charges: reforms aim to improve fairness and environmental protection

MEPs aim to make road user charges fairer and more environmentally friendly ©AP Images/European Union-EP.

This article is brought to you in association with the European Parliament. EU countries imposing time-based road use charges will need to switch to distance-based ones for trucks and buses from 2023 and cars from 2026, under draft rules adopted today. The Transport Committee amendments, voted on Thursday, aim to help meet EU emission reduction targets for the transport sector.and make road user charges fairer. These rules would govern charges that EU member states already impose or introduce on trans-European transport network roads. Key changes made by Transport Committee MEPs Environmental protection

To ensure that vehicles are charged according to actual road use and the pollution they generate, road charging imposed by member states would need to become distanced-based from 2026 for passenger cars (two years earlier than the EU Commission had proposed) and from 2023 for heavy-duty vehicles and goods vans over 2.4 tonnes (one year earlier)
To encourage use of environmentally-friendly vehicles, EU countries would need to set different road charging rates based on CO2 emissions and charges for zero-emission trucks would have to be 50% below the lowest rate.
From 2021, “external cost” charges for traffic-based air or noise pollution would need to be applied to heavy-duty vehicles and goods vans on tolled roads.

Fairness

To ensure fair treatment of all hauliers, from 2020 road charging would need to be applied to all heavy-duty vehicles (current rules allow EU countries to exempt heavy-duty vehicles under 12 tonnes and buses and coaches) and goods vans
The rules would allow countries to set discounts, e.g. for frequent users of light vehicles in the areas of dispersed settlements and the outskirts of cities
Until the switch from time-based to distance-based charges takes place, the draft rules set limits to the short-term charges that can be imposed on drivers from other member states (MEPs also want “vignette” stickers to be available for shorter periods of one day and one week).
Revenue from distance-based charges would have to be invested in transport projects.

Discover more from The European Sting - Critical News & Insights on European Politics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Business & Technology - europeansting.com

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

© UNICEF-SoP/Crickx People walk down a dusty road in the West Bank carrying belongings.

West Bank: UN rights report warns of forcible displacement from three refugee camps

September 5, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Israeli security forces forcibly displaced the entire population of three Palestine refugee camps in the occupied West Bank in January and February last year – and continue to prevent their return, in violation of international law, according to a new report by the UN human rights office, OHCHR. […]

©UNIFIL/Tilak Pokharel UNIFIL personnel distribute food kits to displaced families in Saida, Lebanon.

Lebanon–Israel tensions escalate as Gaza sees major aid delivery

September 4, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Peacekeepers in Lebanon have reported a marked deterioration in the security situation along the Blue Line of separation, with Israeli forces intensifying their military footprint in violation of a landmark Security Council resolution, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Thursday. Meanwhile, in Gaza, humanitarian teams collected hundreds […]

This article is brought to you in association with the European Commission.

World News in Brief: US-Iran war intensifies, aid for Myanmar, casualties in Ukraine

September 3, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Fighting between the United States and Iran has sharply escalated after a month-long lull, with the two sides exchanging strikes as fears grow over further civilian casualties. The US military struck rocket launchers on an island in the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, days after US […]

© WFP/Hugh Rutherford A family eat lunch in the Bedouin community of Umm Al Khair, West Bank.

Food aid cutback in the occupied West Bank as health fears grow in Gaza

September 2, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Lack of funding has forced the World Food Programme (WFP) to slash aid to families in the West Bank by half even though needs have more than doubled over the past two years. “We’re running out of funding, and that means that from today, some 200,000 people […]

© UNICEF/Laxmi Prasad Ngakhusi Mud covers Nuwakot district in central-northern Nepal following devastating flash floods.

Nepal flooding deaths surpass 900 as needs climb

September 1, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. The confirmed death toll from Nepal’s catastrophic floods has surged to 903, with more than 4,200 still missing as rescue crews and humanitarian workers battle blocked highways to reach the hardest-hit areas, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Monday. Key points Triggered by a glacier collapse and […]

© WFP/Mohamad Al Hinnawi Brothers sitting outside their family’s tent in Gaza.

Four children killed as separate attacks in Gaza destroy aid supplies

August 31, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Israeli attacks killed four children and destroyed humanitarian aid supplies in what turned out to be a deadly week in war-ravaged Gaza, the UN emergency relief agency, OCHA, said on Friday. Key points According to UNICEF, the four children – aged two to 16 – were reportedly […]

© UNICEF Buildings are submerged in mud following flash floods in Rasuwa district in central-northern Nepal.

Deadly floods cause widespread destruction in China, Nepal

August 27, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Severe flooding in China and Nepal caused widespread destruction and mounting death tolls, UN agencies reported on Wednesday as aid efforts deployed to help provide emergency assistance. UN agencies and humanitarian partners are already providing support to local authorities, said UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. “The Secretary-General is […]

This article is published in association with European Investment Bank.

As wars spread, the global food system unravels

August 26, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. A family with four children abandoned its farm in Somalia after armed groups arrived and demanded payments for the right to continue cultivating the land. They walked roughly 100 kilometers to a displacement camp. One of the children died along the way. Carl Skau, the acting head […]

Gaza: Children still at risk despite drop in acute hunger

August 25, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Among tent cities pitched on the rubble of destroyed homes in Gaza, children are, by one measure, finally getting enough to eat. By another, however, many of them may never fully recover, according to a new study by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released on Monday. Key points Hunger […]

UN Photo/Elma Okic Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Doreen Bogdan-Martin speaks at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva. (file)

AI for Good: How the UN uses AI to advance human rights

August 24, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. For Ari, a six-year-old boy with learning difficulties in Jamaica, artificial intelligence (AI) opened the door to something many children take for granted: reading a book in his own language. Thousands of miles away, gold miners in Ethiopia are being screened more quickly for tuberculosis, while communities around […]

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Imane El Maimouni, a 22-year-old fifth-year Moroccan medical student at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Casablanca. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Who heals the healers?

August 22, 2026

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Ms. Levina Kulembeka, a Medical Doctor from Tanzania passionate about global health. She is affiliated with the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writer and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on […]

Middle East: 94 per cent need shelter in Gaza, Israel ramps up demolitions in Lebanon

August 21, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Ninety-four cent of Gaza’s 2.1 million residents need shelter as Israeli gunfire and strikes continue inside the enclave, UN agencies and peacekeepers warned on Thursday. Key points More than four out of five families currently face critical or catastrophic living conditions, which lack fuel, energy and essential […]

© IOM/Lisa George Flooding in Sudan has displaced 20,000 people since June (file).

Sudan war: 200,000 newly displaced as fighting and floods intensify

August 20, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Intensifying fighting in Sudan has displaced at least another 200,000 people since late 2025, while destructive seasonal floods are compounding the massive humanitarian emergency there, the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday. In an alert, the agency also warned that relief access has been […]

© UNRWA/Kazem Abu-Khalaf A girl looks out the window of her home in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, where she and other family members were trapped during an Israeli military operation.

Raising alarm over new illegal Israeli outposts, UN condemns attacks, incitement against Palestinians

August 20, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Reports of new illegal Israeli outposts in the occupied West Bank raised alarms at UN Headquarters on Wednesday while the UN rights office called on Israel to condemn its national security minister’s words that incite “violence amounting to atrocity crimes” against Palestinians. Key points “The Secretary-General is […]

Sudan war: 200,000 newly displaced as fighting and floods intensify

August 19, 2026

Gaza: Only three per cent of cropland available to grow food

August 19, 2026

Amid ongoing deadly hostilities in Gaza, the enclave’s farmers face the increasingly difficult challenge of finding safe land to grow their crops. Satellite images published on Tuesday in news analysis from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and UNOSAT, the UN Satellite Centre, indicate that just three per cent (448 hectares) of the shattered enclave’s […]

© UNOCHA/Themba Linden A UN team inspects an unexploded bomb lying on a main road in Khan Younis, Gaza.

Qusra siege eases as UN reaches trapped families, but crisis deepens in Gaza

August 18, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Humanitarian workers have reached Palestinian families who had been trapped for days by Israeli settlers in Qusra village in the northern West Bank, the UN said on Monday, as officials warned that the standoff must not become “the new normal.” UN teams on the ground reached the […]

© UNFPA Palestine A woman and two children walk near the city of Jenin in the West Bank.

900 obstacles and counting: West Bank families trapped as aid access shrinks

August 17, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. Humanitarians continue to provide life-saving assistance to people across the Occupied Palestinian Territory despite facing obstacles such as checkpoints, instability and access restrictions, the United Nations said on Friday. In the West Bank, aid partners warn that their work “is being delayed and limited by a network […]

© UNICEF/Eyad El Baba A nine-year-old girl outside her damaged home in Nuseirat camp in central Gaza.

Gaza: Destruction of buildings rises by nearly 10 per cent since ceasefire

August 14, 2026

This article is published in association with United Nations. New satellite assessments show the destruction of buildings in Gaza has climbed by nearly 10 per cent since October’s faltering ceasefire between Hamas and Israeli forces aim to end the two-year war, which reduced cities to rubble and displaced more than one million people, UN agencies said […]