The European Commission decided Thursday to send Slovenia a first letter of warning over what it claims discriminatory treatment of occasional users of Slovenian toll roads.
The warning concerns amendments made by Slovenia in its transport law that entered into force in July 2008.
The commission believes that the amendments constitute discrimination on the grounds of nationality.
The amended transport law introduced only annual and half-year vignettes for passenger cars and annual vignettes for motorcycles for its toll roads.
The practice is unfair for foreign nationals or foreign residents occasionally using the motorway network in Slovenia, compared to regular users of the toll roads within the country, said the commission, the executive body of the European Union.
Since 1996, the commission has taken the same position against other member states which introduced similar vignette systems, such as Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania.
The commission took action after it received complaints about Slovenia's vignette system from EU tourist organizations.
The warning, which takes the form of a letter of formal notice, is the first formal step in the EU treaty infringement procedure. The commission will issue a second warning if Slovenia fails to tackle the issue properly. The country may be taken to court if it fails to respond satisfactorily to the second warning.
Source:Xinhua
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