San Sebastián (EFE).- The Superior Court of Justice of the Basque Country (TSJPV) endorses the toll collection system for heavy vehicles in Gipuzkoa, despite the fact that it has annulled a section of the regional law that regulates it and that was corrected last December.
The ruling endorses the system
The National Federation of Transport Associations of Spain (Fenadismer) has reported, in a statement, that the TSJPV has “partially declared the toll illegal”.
However, the defendant, the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, is satisfied because the ruling only annuls a part related to the calculation of toll amounts. The standard did not take into account the Euro environmental classification of each vehicle. However, the ruling does not knock down the entire system, unlike what happened with the 2016 and 2018 regulations.
The rule, the third approved by the Provincial Council after the TSJPV annulled the previous two, came into force last January. It imposes copper on the entire layout of these two high-capacity roads as they pass through Gipuzkoa, for which 4 new control gantries were installed (there are 7 in total) and more than a hundred passing banners for automatic toll collection.
The National Road Transport Committee appealed the rule and the TSJPV has annulled a section, “understanding that, once again, it violates European regulations by not taking into account the environmental category of vehicles in the calculation of tolls transport”.
polluting emissions
The ruling issued by the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the TSJPV understands that there is a discrepancy between the norm and the Law of the European Union, by implementing the fee only based on the cost of the infrastructure and not on the so-called “external costs”. , specifically the polluting emissions of each vehicle.
“Now -explains the sentence- such non-conformity with European Union Law does not entail the nullity ‘in totus’ of the foral regulation 5/2021, since it does not invalidate its articles, but rather the implementation of the fee based exclusively on the cost of the infrastructure, that is, without anticipating the variation of the amount that is determined at that cost based on the Euro category of emissions”.
The court itself includes in the ruling that the Provincial Council modified this appealed aspect in the fourth final provision of the foral regulation 6/2022. This change was approved with the Gipuzkoa budget last December.
The ruling says that “the repeal of the appealed regional law (apart from its preamble) was not inexcusable to save the violation of directive 2011/76.” It is enough with its “modification or extension through the differentiation due to the Euro category of vehicle emissions”.
It does not cancel the entire article
In this way, the room understands that it is enough to modify the norm, as the Provincial Council has already done. It is not necessary to annul all of its articles, as it did with the two previous toll regulations.
The National Transport Committee appealed the rule for this reason. Also due to the excessive and disproportionate amounts of tolls, reasons the TSJPV has dismissed.
The deputy for Road Infrastructures of Gipuzkoa, Aintzane Oiarbide, expressed her “full satisfaction” with the sentence on Monday.
“The ruling definitively recognizes the tolls for heavy vehicles, giving the final endorsement to the third Foral Standard approved by a majority in the General Assemblies of Gipuzkoa”
Oiarbide has affirmed that this ruling “definitively recognizes the tolls for heavy vehicles, giving the final endorsement to the third Provincial Regulation approved by a majority in the General Assemblies of Gipuzkoa”.
However, the ruling partially upholds the appeal filed by the National Transport Committee. Cancels the section relating to the calculation of the cost of the toll because it did not take into account the amount of emissions from each vehicle. This is an aspect that the Provincial Council corrected in December of this year.
The judgment partly upholds the appeal but, unlike what happened with the 2016 and 2018 foral regulations, it understands that this defect is not enough for the entire regulation to decline. It is enough to correct it, as the Provincial Council has already done.
“More sustainable system”
“We have always had the support of Europe because we have correctly applied the rules it established, we have been pioneers in these policies and time has proved us right”, Oiarbide stated.
In his opinion, the ruling of the TSJPV supports a system “that is much more fair and sustainable.” “Before implementing the ‘pay per use’ to carriers, it was the people of Gipuzkoa who only paid the costs of the roads through taxes.”
“Today it is all the users who contribute when facing the very high costs of our high-capacity network, without diminishing the rest of the regional budget”, he highlighted.