Council and Parliament agree on clarified rules for road tolls and user charges for heavy-duty vehicles 11:25 The Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional[...]

Today, the Council and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on targeted amendments to the Eurovignette directive, which sets the framework for road tolls and user charges for heavy-duty vehicles across the European Union. The agreement strengthens legal certainty, simplifies implementation and ensures the consistent application of CO₂-based charging rules in light of the new CO₂ emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles that will apply from 1 July 2026.

The amendments provide greater clarity for hauliers, national authorities and toll service providers on how the Eurovignette rules should be applied to different vehicle categories and emission classes. This will facilitate a smooth transition to a road charging system that better reflects vehicle emissions while ensuring more harmonised implementation across member states.

The new CO₂ emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles have direct implications for the classification of vehicles under the Eurovignette framework. The agreed amendments provide legal and technical clarifications to ensure the effective interaction of the two legislative frameworks.

Main elements of the agreement

The provisional agreement:

• clarifies key definitions related to CO₂ emissions, including zero-emission vehicles, low-emission heavy-duty vehicles, vehicle groups, emission reduction trajectories and reference CO₂ emissions, while preserving the original policy objectives of the directive;
• allows member states to apply reduced user charges or infrastructure charges for low-emission vehicles, alongside measures supporting the uptake of zero-emission vehicles;
• clarifies how vocational vehicles, such as garbage collection trucks and construction vehicles, are allocated to the relevant CO₂ emission classes.

Trailer-based toll reductions

The co-legislators decided not to retain the proposed system of road charge variation for heavy-duty vehicles towing more sustainable trailers. They considered that such a scheme would create additional administrative burdens, increase the complexity of tolling systems, affect the rollout and enforcement of electronic toll services. At the same time, the Commission has been requested to evaluate the persisting obstacles.

Next steps

The provisional agreement will now have to be endorsed by the Council and the Parliament. It will then be formally adopted by both institutions following legal-linguistic revision.

• Eurovignette: Council clarifies and simplifies EU rules on road tolls and user charges for heavy duty vehicles (press release, 4 March 2026)
• Timeline (EU law tracker)