EU rules don't yet force Bulgaria to scrap vignettes for cars under 3.5 tonnes after 2030 and switch to a per-kilometre toll, regional development minister Ivan Shishkov said in parliament. He was answering a question from Petar Petrov, an MP from Vazrazhdane, about the ministry's plans to move from vignettes to a toll system on motorways.
"Right now, EU law doesn't require Bulgaria to drop car vignettes from 2030 and replace them with distance-based tolls," Shishkov said. He explained that EU road-charging rules rest on two ideas — "the user pays" and "the polluter pays" — and the goal is for charges to reflect more closely how much a road gets used and how much pollution the traffic causes.
The minister pointed out that the change coming in March 2030 applies only to heavy trucks on the trans-European road network. For them, time-based charging should end, except in specific cases set out in the rules, he said.
Shishkov added that the European Commission must first review how well the car-charging rules work, by 25 March 2027. Only after that review could Brussels propose changes to the law, he explained.
That's why, he said, there is no decision yet in Bulgaria to drop vignettes after 2030. There is no set price per kilometre, no way to calculate the charge, and no clarity on which roads and stretches would fall under any future system.
The minister also mentioned work on the Hemus motorway and the one to Vidin. Both will keep being finished with state money, and Shishkov expects them ready within two-and-a-half to three years. Drivers will keep paying with a vignette on those roads, he said.
Around 1,000km of new roads are planned — the Black Sea motorway, sections of the Ruse–Makaza route, the Rila motorway, and the tunnel under Petrohan, Shishkov said. Bulgarian taxpayers' money isn't enough to cover them, he said, so the only way to build them is through concessions backed by private capital, since the budget doesn't have enough funds.
"There are probably economists in this hall, and they know that bringing private capital into public infrastructure gives the economy an extra boost," the minister told MPs.
On concession sections, how drivers will pay will be settled when the contracts are signed, Shishkov explained. He said drivers won't end up paying twice for using the same stretch of road.
The money now collected from vignettes isn't enough to cover either new construction or the upkeep of existing roads, Shishkov said. That, he said, shows the economic model is wrong.
In early September, while inspecting work on Plovdiv's ring road, Shishkov had already said that under a 2030 EU directive, roads will become toll roads. He explained then that payment methods need to be brought in line with each other. Until then, roads must be designed and prepared in the best way for the country, so they can be handed over on concession.