Car registration fee: Gov't says Kovacs forwarded decision ahead of EC

Romania is not in a situation similar to Hungary, executive spokesperson says.

The European Commissioner Laszlo Kovacs passed a sentence ahead of the procedural end in relation to the first car registration fee charged according to the Romanian Government. The Cabinet's spokesperson, Camelia Spataru, specified, on Friday, that the same remains valid also in relation to the statements made by the European Commissioner on having this fee refunded to the Romanians.

Camelia Spataru said that the fee is actually an environment protection tool, in an attempt to limit carbon dioxide emissions, and it does not represent a discriminating element since it applies both to domestic produced cars and to imported cars.

"We could think that through the statements made, Laszlo Kovacs, the European Commissioner, passed a sentence ahead of the procedural end because at this moment we cannot know whether this file will be brought to the European Justice Court, nor do we know what will be the decision in case this is to be ruled by the European Court", the spokesperson said.

She mentioned that Romania was not in a situation similar to Hungary, as Laszlo Kovacs suggested, since this fee is not charged, in Romania, only to import cars. As for this fee to be refunded to the Romanians, Camelia Spataru said that this was a hypothesis not possible to be currently considered: "This is a measure that cannot be currently anticipated".

The Executive spokesperson restated Romania's willingness to work together with the experts of the European Commission towards identifying a solution that would match the European environment protection trends. Spataru also reminded that Minister of Economy and Finances will have this week, in Brussels, a discussion with Laszlo Kovacs, in this respect.

The European Commissioner for taxation and customs union, Laszlo Kovacs, declared on Thursday that the Romanian authorities should provide guarantees that money will be refunded in case of this who have paid the first registration fee based on the current grid, even if Romania file will not be at the European Court of Justice.

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