November 2005
OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIALOGUE
Drivers Licence Directive – again no agreement by the Member States
The Member States have again failed to reach agreement on the Drivers Licence Directive. At the 5 December Transport Council, Germany was again the main dissenter – taking the view that it had not been prepared to finalise its views on the proposal so soon after the instalment of the new Government and its staff. Once Germany said it could not agree the text on the table, France, Austria and Poland followed suit.
The discussions will work toward the next Council at the end of March under the Austrian Presidency. According to European Transport Safety Council (a Brussels based road safety lobbying organisation), Austria is putting Road Safety high on its agenda, but its support for Germany yesterday suggests that that may not include the Drivers Licence Directive. However, what is clear is that Germany's position rests only on its concern about the forced withdrawal and replacement of licences (probably in 26 years time!) and so, Germany's resistance may well give way in March.INFORMATION
New EU vehicle emission limits
Further to divergent views of industry and environmentalist organisation on the European Commission draft proposals for stricter euro 5 emission limits for passenger cars and light duty vehicles (see September update), the French Government has called for an impact assessment of a proposed extension of pollution control devices' durability and has also asked the European Commission to justify its decision to remove a loophole allowing large sport cars or Sports Utility Vehicles to escape euro 5 standards. In parallel, Denmark's environmental protection agency said the new regulation should also suggest indicative euro 6 limit values to give a long term signal to industry, especially regarding NOx emissions from diesel cars – in lightv of the fact that many new vehicles already meet euro 5 limits.
National particle filter subsidies
The Dutch government has announced that it will pay up to 80% of the costs of fitting fine particle filters to all diesel cars. The subsidy of €600 was already introduced for new cars in June, and apparently, the government is now extending the scheme in order to have particle filters on one-third of diesel cars on Dutch roads by 2008. The Dutch environment ministry is also preparing legislation to enable city councils to charge lower parking fees for cleaner cars.
Also, the Danish Government has committed DKr300m (€40.2m) in subsidies for diesel particle filters on the grounds that the measure is intended to ensure that fitting filters would not increase costs for consumers.
Holland "to miss air quality limits by a decade"
The Dutch environmental assessment agency has undertaken an assessment of the national implications of the EU’s Cafe air quality strategy (the Café standards which have led to bans on the use of older vehicles in both Italy and Germany recently) and has concluded that the Netherlands will miss by a margin of ten years binding EU targets to curb particulate and nitrogen oxide air pollution by 2010. According to the Agency, even if all measures envisaged by Cafe are introduced, the Netherlands will still be unable to bring ambient concentrations of particulates to levels agreed through the EU in 1999 As a result, the Dutch government may propose an extension to a derogation clause proposed as part of Cafe. Under this clause member states would have up to five extra years to meet 2010 targets if they can show that are doing all they can to reach the limits. The new review shows this would not be sufficient for the Netherlands. The Agency’s assessment is thought to be the first detailed examination of the impact of Cafe on an individual member state.
MEPs vote for greener EU road toll rules
The European Parliament's Transport Committee has reintroduced into the proposed EU road toll rules scope for member states to recoup external environmental costs. The decision is in contrast to the agreement by EU transport ministers that tolls could only be used to recover costs of infrastructure. The clause was recommended by centre-right Dutch MEP Corien Wortmann-Koll in August and it would require the European Commission to propose a calculation method for charging external costs no later than two years after the new directive enters force. The Committee has also proposed that the road-toll Directive apply to all lorries over 3.5 tonnes whereas the Member States only want it to apply to vehicles over 12-tonnes.
" Disproportionate" Austrian lorry ban condemned
A planned Austrian ban on heavy lorries using a key Alpine crossing route infringes EU rules guaranteeing the free movement of goods, the European court of justice ruled on Tuesday. The court said the ban, which was put forward by the Tyrol region to curb local air pollution but never implemented, was a disproportionate obstacle to trade between Italy and northern Europe – and said that Tyrol should have opted for less restrictive environmental measures.
- 00 -
The FIVA Legislation Commission members are: Horst Bruning (Chairman); Tiddo Bresters, Andrew Burt, David Davis, Adalberto Gueli, Winfried Kallinger; Patrick Rollet, Svend Aage Tholstrup; and Carla Fiocchi (Secretariat)