On Wednesday 6 April 2016, Luxembourg's Minister in charge of Transport, François Bausch, held a meeting with Belgian officials responsible for mobility and finances to discuss the ongoing protests and roadblocks that have arisen in the Grand Duchy's neighbouring country in the wake of the introduction of a new kilometre tax for heavy vehicles.
The kilometre levy for HGVs weighing over 3.5 tonnes came into force on Friday 1 April 2016 in three Belgian regions, and has since faced heavy backlash in the form of motorway blockages, particularly in the Wallonia area.
Viapass, the interregional public entity managing the coordination and monitoring of this measure, announced ahead of its implementation that as of 1 April all lorries within the aforementioned category would be subjected to an amount varying between €0.074 and €0.292 per kilometre travelled on toll routes, dependent on the weight, emission and road taken of the vehicle in question. The number of kilometres covered is recorded by an On Board Unit (OBU) with which all Belgian and foreign lorries that drive in Belgium are required to be equipped, which then transmits the amount of the toll to an invoicing centre.
Viapass announced in an official statement released on 20 March 2016: "The decision to introduce a Kilometer Charge is based on a cooperation agreement concluded by and between the three Regions and the previous political coalitions in 2011. The current regional governments enacted it by decrees last year".
The news has been widely rejected by Belgium's HGV drivers, who have been establishing roadblocks along central routes in protest, forcing other road users to find another route or face traffic jams.
The Luxembourg Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructure stated that Minister Bausch met with his Belgian federal and regional counterparts in order to express the Luxembourg Government's concerns over the chaos, which he warned would lead to organisational and fianncial problems for Luxembourg road transport enterprises and would hamper the economy as well as procurement.
The Minister called on governments to intervene in a bid to resolve the crisis as soon as possible and avoid a worsening of the situation.
British rock band Bring Me the Horizon were forced to postpone a concert at den Atelier on Wednesday afternoon when the group's vehicles became stuck in Belgium's tumultuous road conditions.
Photo by European Union (François Bausch)
