Spain Reveals New Payment System For Country’s Roads From 2023
Spain News
Published: 10 November 2021 14:17 CET
In less than two years driving for free on Spanish roads will come to an end. This confirmation comes after months of speculation and debate about the Spanish Government's resolve to begin charging for the use of the roads in Spain.
The new charges will come into effect from January 2023 and according to Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, will help in the maintenance of the country’s network of roads.
The new ruling will require all road users to display a special vignette (sticker) on their vehicles. The sticker will be purchased at a fixed price and will give the driver access to all high-speed Spanish roads.
Officials have said that anyone found with a vignette that they haven’t paid for, will be fined, however the method of detecting this violation has yet to be established.
The new sticker system will only be short term, as the Ministry’s optimum plan, which was already leaked in the summer, is to charge drivers one cent per kilometre.
Owing to the logistical problems and great difficulty that are involved in being able to control this type of system, it will be put into practice at a later date. The Government plans to begin working on this next year and hopes to have a roadmap drawn up before the end of the year.
The move will mark the future of driving long distances in Spain with the ultimate goal of making drivers pay to maintain the roads, something Brussels is keen to see.
Paying to use the roads in the EU is very common but the charge has met with extreme criticism, in particular from lorry drivers, who fear they will go out of business should the new charges come into force.
Although the Ministry of Transport at first had doubts about which model they would operate, Spanish on-line newspaper El Confidencial, has revealed that the new system will be adopted in Spain.
Drivers are not the only ones who are opposing the move. Although the PSOE party supports the new measures, coalition party Podemos are not so keen, going as far as threatening to oppose the system, although they have vowed to support it if certain road users are excluded.
The move now seems set in stone and there will be no going back. From 2023, Spain’s drivers will have to get used to paying to use the country’s roads by purchasing a sticker.
Source
https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2021/11/10/new-payment-system-for-spanish-roads-revealed/
https://spanishnewstoday.com/new-payment-system-for-roads-in-spain-confirmed_1678877-a.html
