ASECAP Manifesto on the Toll Road Concession Model

Download the ASECAP Manifesto Safeguarding Europe’s Mobility: Fair, Resilient, Sustainable and Competitive through the Toll Road Concession Model

Europe Must Defend Its Tolling and Concession Model to Safeguard a Strategic Asset

The concession model, based on the user-pays and polluter-pays principles, has delivered over 80,000 km of high-standard motorways across Europe without burdening public budgets. It is not just a financing tool — it is a strategic policy instrument.
This framework directly supports key EU initiatives, including:
• European Green Deal
• Fit for 55 package
• TEN-T Regulation
• Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation
• Directive (EU) 2022/362

Weakening tolling systems would fragment the Single Market, distort investment signals, and undermine Europe’s capacity to finance decarbonization and digitalization.
Key facts:
• Road transport carries most passengers and freight in Europe.
• It represents the largest share of transport emissions.
• According to a PW study, €71.9 billion in additional motorway investment (2025–2035) is needed to meet sustainability, safety, and digital goals.

Without stable toll revenues, these investments will either not happen or will fall on already stretched public finances.

Abandoning the user-pays principle:
• Shifts costs from users to taxpayers.
• Weakens incentives for cleaner mobility.
• Undermines two decades of regulatory coherence.
This is not the time for inconsistency.

If the EU aims to:
• Achieve carbon neutrality by 2050
• Implement distance-based, CO₂-differentiated charging
• Deploy AFIR-compliant infrastructure
• Build climate-resilient and military-ready corridors
• Maintain fiscal sustainability
It must firmly defend tolling and concession models as pillars of transport policy.

We call on the European Commission, the European Parliament, and Member States to:
1. Reaffirm the user-pays and polluter-pays principles.
2. Ensure coherence across TEN-T, AFIR, Eurovignette, and Green Deal policies.
3. Avoid short-term political decisions that weaken long-term objectives.
4. Recognize concession-based tolling as a strategic enabler of investment and competitiveness.

Europe has built one of the world’s safest and most advanced motorway networks through this model. Dismantling it would not modernize Europe — it would weaken it.
Preserve coherence. Protect investment. Deliver on Europe’s commitments.