Strasbourg on 11 07 2012. Illustration of trucks on the motorway.

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G. VARELA / 20 MINUTES

  • Discussed within the framework of the climate law plan, the new ecotax would rather be a “contribution” paid by carriers.

    Each region is free to implement it or not.

  • In Alsace, we are impatiently awaiting this tax to free ourselves from the many trucks fleeing Germany and its road tax.

  • In Brittany, where the rebellion of the “Red Caps” was born, it is said to penalize the agri-food economy.

They have the common point of having a strong regional identity.

But geographically, everything opposes Brittany and Alsace.

It is therefore not surprising to see the two territories making radically opposite conclusions on the subject of the new ecotax on heavy goods vehicles.

Abandoned in 2014 under pressure in particular from the “Red Bonnets” movement initiated in Brittany, the idea was to tax trucks using French roads in order to finance other means of transport such as the train.

A quack that would have cost the trifle of a billion euros in compensation alone, according to the report of the Court of Auditors drawn up in 2017.

Six years later, the subject is however back on the table and will soon be debated in the National Assembly.

Discussed within the framework of the climate law plan, it would rather be a “contribution”.

The deputies gave their approval on Sunday in committee for a possible implementation, only for heavy goods vehicles and in the regions which wish it.

In the east, Alsace is already busy, while in Brittany, we still don't want it.

Here's why.

The special diet of Alsace

The possibility of legislating by ordinance for the regions is not new in the East, because already present in the Alsace law of August 2019. The brand new European Collectivity of Alsace (CEA) is working to put it in place and is the only one in France, to take charge of the management of certain sections of national roads, competence until then under the State.

Main objective, "to solve the problem" of the A35.

This motorway which crosses Alsace is used daily by nearly 180,000 vehicles, including around 160,000 heavy goods vehicles.

Two thousand of them are said to be trucks that go to France to escape the Maut, the ecotax put in place since 2005 on the German side.

"Alsace has inspired the government," welcomes CEA President Frédéric Bierry.

Brittany's penalizing situation

She has often advanced this argument to justify her opposition to the eco-tax.

In Brittany, the peninsula situation would be a real brake on exports if a heavy goods vehicle tax were put in place.

On Sunday, the president of the region Loïg Chesnais-Girard (PS) also indicated that he did not want to apply it.

“If there is an environmental tax to enter Rungis, we Bretons who feed Parisians will be taxed to do our job.

This without distinction of those who are virtuous or not.

Taxation to drive the transition must be better thought out, ”the socialist said on Twitter.

Recently, the president of the Regional Road Transport Federation estimated that "any new tax would penalize our companies and endanger their competitiveness" because of the "peripherality" of the region, where the food industry weighs very heavily.

The regional leader of the National Rally is even more radical.

For Gilles Pennelle, “we must not only refuse the implementation of the ecotax in Brittany but also everywhere else”, because of the region's strong export capacity.

The latter intends to recall that "behind our truckers, it will also be our market gardeners, oyster farmers, fishermen, vegetables or even breeders who will suffer this new tax".

Not so easy to set up

If Brittany has made it clear that it does not wish to consider this new tax, the local constraints of certain territories located on the French borders are pushing them to think about it.

But the task will not be easy.

In Alsace, despite the widespread enthusiasm, the implementation of the heavy goods vehicle tax remains subject to the opening of the highly paid Grand Bypass West of Strasbourg (GCO) at the end of 2021 or early 2022, but also "under the technical conditions of its application, ”recalls President Frédéric Bierry.

“They have been under consideration for a long time.

If this may seem easy, it is far from obvious because there are technical constraints but also geographical to know precisely where it can be useful because it would not be necessary that the heavy truck traffic is transferred to other small ones. roads or even parallel expressways, particularly in the Haut-Rhin and even in the Vosges, ”explains Frédéric Bierry.

This tax on heavy goods vehicles in transit could take the form of a sticker, control by gantry cranes or by GPS position.

"It is under study", specifies the elected official who knows that this tax will not be applied before 2024, or even 2025. Nothing says that the gantries installed in 2013 and very often targeted by opponents are not used .

The way is still long.

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  • Society

  • Reindeer

  • Strasbourg

  • Tax

  • Heavy weights