Following the infringement proceedings started in November 2021 and the reasoned opinions sent in May 2022, on 19 April 2023 the Commission decided to refer Bulgaria and Poland to the Court of Justice for failing to transpose Directive 2019/520 on the European Electronic Tolling Service (EETS), whose deadline elapsed on 19 October 2021.

The EETS Directive finds its rationale in the fact that significant differences in technical specifications of electronic road toll systems could hamper the achievement of an European-wide interoperability of electronic tolls and are detrimental in terms of costs as well as to the achievement of transport policy objectives. The Directive, therefore, lays down the conditions necessary to ensure, on the one hand, the interoperability of electronic road toll systems on the entire Union road network and to facilitate, on the other hand, the cross-border exchange of registration data regarding the vehicles and the owners or holders for which there was a failure to pay road fees of any kind in the Union. 

Failure to transpose Directive 2019/520, therefore, is an obstacle to the interoperability between Member States’ electronic road toll systems, and to cross-border enforcement of the obligation to pay road fees in the Union, thereby potentially resulting in drivers being required to have multiple subscription contracts. Once fully implemented, indeed, the EETS will allow European road-users could to pay tolls with a single subscription contract, through a single provider and a single on-board unit that would cover all Member States.

Marco Stillo