Dutch support new legislation and bilateral agreementsItem Added 31 October 2007 Dutch see need for multiple solutions to problem of cross border enforcement
Dutch parking managers believe cross border enforcement will become more important in the near future as international traffic increases and road pricing and environmentally friendly taxation are introduced in member states.
Delegates at the Eurosparks legal research seminar in The Hague on 11 October made these points as they debated the project’s interim recommendations for new European legislation.
They also supported bilateral agreements and other practical solutions, which they felt would be neglected with a focus on legislation only.
“The audience responded positively. There was an emphasis on the importance of the problem, not only in financial terms but also because of the need to make clear that everybody, foreigners as well as inhabitants, should pay what they owe,” said Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten (VNG) taxation manager Robbert Verkuijlen, who organised the seminar.
Fifty-six delegates attended the seminar from municipalities, the finance, interior and traffic ministries, universities and industry suppliers, coming from The Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
“The highlights for me were the number of participants from diverse backgrounds and nationalities and the unanimous will to improve the situation,” said Robbert Verkuijlen. “We could see it is possible to resolve the problem from different points of view, both scientific and practical.”
Seminar speakers included University of Utrecht law lecturer Dr Mirjam Freudenthal, University of Hull law lecturer Dr Mike Varney, Willem Hoogendam of Rotterdam Municipal Taxation and Willem Rijnberg of Rijksdienst voor het Wegverkeer (RDW). |
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Facts & Figures- The number of foreign heavy goods vehicles entering the UK has trebled in the last ten years
- 1.7m foreign HGVs pass through UK ports each year for mainland Europe
- 8% of HGVs on UK roads at any one time are foreign registered
- Foreign HGVs use roads three times more than UK registered HGVs
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