May 2005
INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS
The FIVA network was presented another opportunity to lobby their MEPs in May when Mr. Ari Vatanen, a French (although of Finnish nationality) MEP of the Transport Committee tabled an amendment for his report on the Commission’s Road Safety Action Programme addressing historic vehicles. The amendment, which FIVA asked him to table, reads:
(The EP) “Is keen to preserve the cultural heritage represented by historic vehicles; therefore urges that planned legislation should take into consideration any unintentional but potentially negative effects on the use - and thus also the preservation - of historic vehicles;
FIVA members have been asked to contact their national MEPs who sit on the Transport Committee to ask them to support this amendment. If the amendment is adopted by the Parliament, it can be used in the future to support FIVA’s position on any draft legislation which might disproportionately harm FIVA’s interests.
As a result of these lobbying opportunities, FIVA and its concerns are slowly but surely becoming known by relevant decision makers and the business, activity and pleasure of historic vehicle preservation and use are becoming better understood y decision makers.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIALOGUE
Driving licence Directive – call for lobby action
On a less positive note, contrary to earlier indications, the Luxembourg Presidency has advised FIVA that there has been very little support among the member states for the amendment tabled to the Driving Licence proposal by the European Parliament which would permit member states to allow B (car) licence holders to drive historic busses and trucks. The feedback has been that this measure would not contribute to road safety. However, in the UK where this measure has been in force for some years, there has been no detrimental impact on road safety – whereas the stricter renewal and medical provisions proposed in the new Directive would disproportionately impact non-commercial historic bus and lorry owners.
If any FIVA members wish to take this matter up with their Ministers and Governments, please contact Geoff Smith as soon as possible as the Council will be voting on this matter in late June.
PAH in tyres
The EU institutions are working to achieve a First Reading agreement on the European Commission’s proposal to restrict the placing on the market and use of extender oils and tyres containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) above certain thresholds on the grounds that they are carcinogenic (see February’s update). Concerns had been raised that some manufacturers would not be able to meet the conditions of the Directive for certain tyres – such as tyres for historic vehicles - by the implementation date – now agreed at January 2010. Accordingly, amendments were tabled in the European Parliament designed to avoid the problem. One of those amendments – which would allow tyres not conforming to the Directive to still be sold after the implementation date will resolve the problem as it allows stockpiles to continue to be sold after the implementation date. This amendment also has the support of the Commission and the member states and is expected to be included in the agreed text of the Directive. Work by FIVA’s Cypriot members has facilitated this agreement as the EP Rapporteur is a Cypriot, Mr. Adamos Adamou.
INFORMATION
Vehicle Insurance and Trailers
The European Commission is of the view that consumers would benefit from increased opportunities to obtain insurance coverage for the necessary and appropriate costs of legal proceedings following motor vehicle accidents within the European Union. The Commission will examine the current availability of voluntary insurance contracts for legal expenses and the impact of such insurance cover on the cost of premiums for policyholders in Member States and will report to the European Parliament and the Council this year. The Commission has also announced that it will also examine the specific insurance problems concerning trailers and cross-border issues and make a report by 20 July 2005.
EU air quality - Germany’s Upper House to reject diesel tax breaks
Germany's upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, has signalled that it is likely to reject a draft law introducing tax breaks for diesel cars equipped with particle filters. The chamber has adopted a non-legislative resolution urging the government to produce an alternative "revenue neutral" version of the law. The Bundesrat represents state governments, which fear the proposal will cause a €1.2bn tax shortfall in their budgets. The government has dismissed this, arguing that recent increases in diesel car sales will offset any shortfall in vehicle tax revenue.
Greenpeace criticises the retrofitting of particle filters
Greenpeace Germany has strongly criticised the government's proposal to offer incentives to motorists retrofitting particle filters to their diesel cars or buying filter-equiped new models The group believes that the maximum €350 incentives will encourage only inferior filters and therefore fail to cut emissions significantly. It called for incentives of €1000, targeted at existing vehicles rather than new - which it called a subsidy for the car industry - and for the EU-recommended emission threshold for incentives of 5mg/km to become a legal limit from 2008.
VOC in vehicle paints Directive – Poland wants more time for implementation
The Polish government has asked the European Commission to allow it a three-year delay to implement the VOC directive which was adopted in 2004. Poland says that introducing the required limits on volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by the directive's legal deadlines would put at risk thousands of jobs in the country's vehicle repair and refinishing sector. Member states normally cannot seek delays before implementing EU laws after they have been agreed. However the paints directive entered force on 21 April 2004, ten days before Poland and nine other countries became EU member states. The European Commission is not bound to support Poland's request and the Commission has always been reluctant to accept transition periods for this category of directives.
FIVA members should recall that FIVA won an exemption from this Directive for member states to be allowed to continue to licence the use of banned paints for use on historic vehicles.
Britain breaches EU particle pollution limit
Poor air quality in London has made the UK the latest country after Germany and Italy to fail EU fine particle pollution standards. Restrictions in full force since January set a 50 micrograms per cubic metre limit that can be exceeded up to 35 days per year (it is this law which has led to the vehicles ban in Italian cities). A 36th exceedence has just been recorded at a monitoring site in London. Environmental group NSCA called for urgent action to eliminate pollution hot spots, higher tax rates for polluting vehicles and more use by local authorities of road-user charging and low-emission zones.
European Commission funded study says that subsidies are promoting car use
A European Commission-funded study from Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Local governments for sustainability (Iclei) has claimed that hidden subsidies from local governments are promoting unsustainable private use of cars. Based on an analysis of local authority budgets from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy, it claims that spending on, for example, road maintenance, lighting and policing, is the equivalent of subsidising private car use by between €80 and €250 per citizen per year. The report calls for expenditure to be switched to greener transport projects such as bicycle lanes.
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The FIVA Legislation Commission members are: Geoff Smith, (Chairman); Winfried Kallinger; Svend Aage Tholstrup; Adalberto Gueli; David Davis, Tiddo Bresters, Horst Bruning, Patrick Rollet, and CarlaFiocchi (Secretariat)