December 2005
OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIALOGUE
European Commission Mid Term Review of the Transport White Paper
In December FIVA made a submission to the Commission’s DG TREN as a part of the Commission’s mid-term review of the Transport White Paper. In the submission, FIVA explained that:
? one of FIVA’s key role is to protect the right to preserve and use historic vehicles and that in doing so, FIVA is helping preserving an element of European culture for Europeans;
? The preservation and use of historic vehicle make a significant contribution to national economies
? FIVA is concerned about the potential impact of environmental legislation on the use of historic vehicles – and is undertaking research which will help allow decisions based on facts – rather than assumptions – to be taken;
? FIVA is committed to ensuring the best possible road safety for historic vehicle users and surrounding traffic/pedestrians and the commitment is reflected in the Code of Safe driving which FIVA is developing and will distribute to its membership;
The submission concluded with a call to EU decision makers to recognise that historic vehicles have a right to use roads like all other vehicles and that they also always consider the impact of policy and policy development on the historic vehicle movement and – if the impact would be negative and unintentional or disproportionate to the objective – work with FIVA to find solutions which satisfies all needs.
INFORMATION
Member States restrain enthusiasm for the new EU air quality programme
At the beginning of December the EU member states discussed the CAFÉ programme (see September issues update) during an Environment Council. The Programme was not given a warm welcome – instead, several Member States said the strategy was too ambitious. Others called for additional flexibility to meet existing EU air quality marks and opposed plans to make new fine particle pollution limits legally binding.
While Ireland, Finland and Sweden supported the programme, one of the recurring reasons given for the lukewarm response to the proposed programme were problems created by the current economic climate and a number of delegations called for the Commission to quickly propose sector-specific emission controls – especially the Euro 5 plan to cut vehicle pollution.
Commission proposes new emission standards
In December, the European commission issued formal proposals for "Euro 5" norms and draft legislation requiring one-quarter of public spending on vehicles such as buses to be directed to "clean vehicles". The Euro 5 emission proposal remained unchanged from the July consultation-proposal and is designed to achieve the following:
? vans: reduce key pollutants in fine particle emissions by up to 90%,
? diesel cars: reduce from PM10 limit to 5mg/km (currently 25mg/km) - all diesel cars will have to be fitted with particle filters to meet the standard; and reduce the maximum nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions to 200 mg/km (currently 250 mg/km)
? petrol cars: hydrocarbon emissions will be restricted to 75 mg/km (currently 100 mg/km); NOx will be limited to 60 mg/km (currently 80 mg/km)
? Sport utility vehicles over 2.5 tonnes: these will now be covered by the same limits applying to cars.
The proposal for a public transport clean vehicle purchase quota is intended to require authorities to fill their quota from vehicles that comply with a European "enhanced environmentally friendly vehicle" standard, or EEV, agreed earlier this year. These include vehicles adapted to use biofuels, hydrogen, natural gas or LPG and electric or hybrid vehicles. It is anticipated that the proposal will impact the purchases of 17,000 buses and 35,000 other heavy duty vehicles such as refuse lorries.
Spain attempts to tackle stubbornly dirty air
Spain published draft legislation in December to improve the effectiveness of controls by regional and local authorities because it recognised that it has failed to ensure that air quality complies with EU law. Fine particulate (PM10) air pollution in all of Spain's major cities (over 250,000 inhabitants) is well over the EU limits that came into full force this year, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exceeds maximum levels set for 2010 in the six largest cities. The draft legislation will propose "economic instruments and market mechanisms" which have not yet been detailed.
Greener EU road tolling rules approved
In December the European Parliament agreed amendments proposed by the Council on road tolling thereby allowing the adoption of the Directive revising the rules on charging lorries for using Europe's main motorways. The EP won concessions that include a requirement that from 2010 EU states must vary charges for lorries using the trans-European road network according to their Euro emissions class and that from 2012 charging will apply to vehicles over 3.5 tonnes rather than 12 tonnes which is the current limit and was also the preference of the Member State Governments.
However, the Council successfully opposed the EP’s demands that the directive require external environmental and health, as well as infrastructure and accident, costs to be taken into account in setting charges. However the legislation will not prevent individual member states from taking this step.
The final agreement also:
? requires the European Commission to present a "model" for calculating all external costs "to serve as the basis for future calculations of infrastructure charges" within two years. This will have to be accompanied by a new legislative proposal.
? allows Member States to exempt certain major roads from charges where there is a risk of regional isolation.
? Allows for up to 15% higher charging levels in mountainous regions.
? allows for several derogations from the requirement to charge lorries down to 3.5 tonnes. In a compromise with member states it also allows member states to derogate from the 2010 requirement to vary charges by emission class if this would "seriously undermine" tolling systems or divert vehicles onto non-charging roads.
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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)