Court of Auditors: 'Only foreign trucks benefit from Ecotax debacle'

In its annual report, the French Court of Audit devotes an entire 32-page chapter to the consequences of Environment Minister Ségolène Royal’s 2014 decision to not pass the Ecotaxe Poids Lourds – France’s kilometre charge for trucks, so to speak – in extremis. Besides billions of euros lost and useless expenditure, the industrial, social, environmental and health consequences are incalculable. “A strategic debacle and an extremely expensive decision,” it sounds in summary.