1. A European electronic toll service shall be set up which encompasses all the road networks in the Community on which tolls or road-usage fees are collected electronically. This electronic toll service will be defined by a contractual set of rules allowing all operators and/or issuers to provide the service, a set of technical standards and requirements and a single subscription contract between the clients and the operators and/or issuers offering the service. This contract shall give access to the service on the whole of the network and subscriptions shall be available from the operator of any part of the network and/or from the issuer.
2. The European electronic toll service shall be independent of the fundamental decisions taken by Member States to levy tolls on particular types of vehicles, of the level of charges and of the purpose for which such charges are levied. It shall concern only the method of collecting tolls or fees. The service shall allow for contracts to be concluded irrespective of the place of registration of the vehicle, the nationality of the parties to the contract, and the zone or point on the road network in respect of which the toll is due.
3. The system shall allow intermodality to develop without creating disadvantages for other modes of transport.
4. Where Member States have national systems of electronic toll collection, they shall ensure that operators and/or issuers offer the European electronic toll service to their customers in accordance with the following timetable:
(a) for all vehicles exceeding 3,5 tonnes and for all vehicles which are allowed to carry more than nine passengers (driver + 8), at the latest three years after the decisions on the definition of the European electronic toll service, as referred to in Article 4(4), have been taken;
(b) for all other types of vehicle, at the latest five years after the decisions on the definition of the European electronic toll service, as referred to in Article 4(4), have been taken.]