THE European Commission is demanding that Romania reforms its car registration taxation, which it thinks deters the import of second-hand cars, a key issue for fleets wanting to offload older vehicles.

Brussels thinks Romanian car tax legislation does not comply with the country’s EU treaty commitments on the free movement of goods between member states.

Its tax rises according to the age of a car, and as imported used-cars are inevitably older than new cars first sold in Romania, ‘the cars most heavily taxed are, by default, imported second-hand cars, including those from other member states,’ said a Commission note.