New motorway tolls in Greece

Subject: New motorway tolls in Greece

The mass introduction of new toll charges and the increases in the amount of such tolls on Greek motorways are continuing (for example, Varipopi, Aghios Stefanos, the E65 in Thessaly, Athens- Patras, Velestino and Kileler, the Athens-Thessaloniki motorway). The extortionate toll charges will not only increase the financial burden on workers who have already paid for the construction of these motorways with their plundered taxes, but also endanger their safety as many will be forced to use alternative roads that are in a very poor condition.

At the same time, the government is preparing a new ‘electronic analogue toll’ system that introduces generalised tolls which will make it prohibitively expensive for ordinary people to travel; it should be noted that the cost of travel is already very high. This represents the implementation of the EU’s anti- working class principle that ‘the user and the polluter pay’; this means in effect that only the workers pay, since the construction companies, with their provocative ‘concession contracts’ and the successive cost overshoots (signed off by successive Greek governments without exception), enjoy guaranteed profits from the tolls and national and EU financial aid. When the people justifiably mobilise, demanding the complete abolition of tolls, the SYRIZA - ANEL government responds by prosecuting the demonstrators and repressing the demonstrations.

How does the Commission view the justifiable demand made by workers that tolls should be completely abolished and that the criminal prosecution of those who fight against the imposition of such tolls should cease?

Answer given by Ms Bulc on behalf of the Commission

(22 June 2018)

In the Commission’s view, user financing can be considered as a fair and efficient way to build and maintain a high quality motorway network, as opposed to relying solely on taxpayers’ contributions, i.e. requiring all citizens to pay independently of whether or not they use the motorway network. In order to ensure coherence in the application of tolls to all vehicle categories in the EU, the Commission proposed in May 2017 to extend the scope of Directive 1999/62/EC (1) to vehicles with at least four wheels (2).

On 19 January 2018, the Greek Government notified the Commission of the intended modification to the infrastructure charge tolling arrangement applicable to heavy goods vehicles on the Egnatia Odos motorway. Since the directive applies today only to heavy goods vehicles (i. e. having a maximum permissible laden weight of over 3.5 tonnes), Member States are not obliged to inform the Commission about the changes to their tolling arrangements applicable to other categories of vehicles.

As regards criminal prosecution, it should be noted that the Commission does not have any powers to intervene in individual proceedings cases of alleged rights violations which do not constitute a breach of EC law. The day-to-day administration of the justice systems of the Member States rests exclusively within the competence of Member States.

⋅1∙ Directive 1999/62/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for the use of certain infrastructures

⋅2∙ Proposal for a DIRECTIVE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL amending Directive 1999/62/EC on the charging of heavy goods vehicles for

the use of certain infrastructures, COM(2017) 275 final, https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/initiatives/com-2017-275_en (proposed new Article 2(15)).