Railway companies denounce scrapping premiums

Publication date: 26 May 2009

Railway companies claim that the scrapping premiums being put in place to promote car sales in many EU member states are unfair to the rail industry. In a letter addressed to Commissioners Günter Verheugen (enterprise and industry), Antonio Tajani (transport) and Stavros Dimas (environment), on 19 May, they question the environmental benefits of such schemes.

This is not the first time the European Commission’s decision to authorise such schemes has come under fire. A month ago, Greenpeace also took the initiative of writing to Verheugen to denounce aid it considers counter-productive for the environment and to ask the EU executive to put out recommendations to the member states for the creation of truly ‘green’ support schemes for the automotive sector.

In a letter to the three commissioners, Johannes Ludewig, executive director of the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), states that the scrapping schemes are an “inappropriate use of public money as they favour one particular mode of transport and are not aimed at reducing the environmental impact of cars”.

He goes on to explain that while certain aid schemes, such as those set up in France and Italy, set limits on CO2 emissions from new vehicles that may be purchased, others contain absolutely no emissions requirements (eg the British and German schemes).

The CER thus concurs with Greenpeace, which earlier pointed out that in most cases, an old Fiat Punto could be replaced by a Range Rover that produces three times the level of CO2 emissions. Like Greenpeace, the CER calls on the Commission to make sure that premiums are granted for the purchase of more environmentally acceptable vehicles.

Scrapping schemes have been put in place in 12 member states: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Slovakia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Source: Europolitics