Berlin - Germany plans to charge foreign motorists from next year for using its roads and famed autobahn highways to help pay for the country's infrastructure, the transport minister says.
Drivers of cars and motorcycles registered outside Germany will have to pay about €10 for a 10-day badge, €20 for a two-month permit and over 1€00 for an annual pass.
The exact cost for the one-year badge will depend on a vehicle's engine size and age and emissions, said the minister, Alexander Dobrindt, as he presented his plan.
Public coffers
German motorists will also have to pay but will then be compensated through a break on their motor vehicle tax in a proposal Dobrindt insisted would "conform with EU law".
In Brussels, a spokesperson for EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas cautioned about the planned foreigners-only fee that "non-discrimination is a fundamental principle of EU law".
Neighbouring countries, including Austria and the Netherlands, have already complained about the German proposal, which Dobrindt said would be formalised into a law this year.
Dobrindt said foreign drivers make 170 million trips to or through Germany per year and predicted the new tolls would yield €2.5bn for Germany's public coffers over four years.