Environmental stickers in the EU

1.8.2017

Question for written answer E-005152-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Hilde Vautmans (ALDE)

More and more European cities are introducing environmental zones, where only vehicles that meet certain conditions or that have an appropriate environmental sticker may be driven. Because the stickers are not valid in other countries — so that members of the public are often compelled to buy multiple environmental stickers in different EU countries — they restrict the mobility of European citizens. Moreover, environmental stickers do not come free of charge and have to be applied for in sufficiently good time.

The Commission acknowledged some time ago that ultimately an increase in the number of environmental zones could result in a fragmented patchwork of conurbations with ‘new borders’ in the EU.

In 2008, it agreed that harmonisation of the conditions governing access to environmental zones would constitute a simplification. In the same year, it stated that it had not yet submitted a proposal on the subject because it was thought not to be compatible with the subsidiarity principle, but that, as the number of environmental zones was increasing, that view might have to be reconsidered.

1. Now there has still not been any proposal for uniform rules, although the number of environmental zones has increased over the years. Will the Commission propose a European environmental sticker?2. If not, what measures does it propose in order to prevent unnecessary bureaucracy and extra expense on the purchase of environmental stickers?