FIVA Legislation Commission meeting
FIVA’s Legislation Commission (LC) held a two day meeting at the end of August in Malmo. Discussions and decisions during the meeting included:
? The LC Chairman will ask ANFs which have not already appointed a member to the LC to do so during the forthcoming General Assembly in Copenhagen;
? the further development of FIVA policy to respond to developing Environmental policy - at both national and European level - which is presenting real threats to the future use of HVs - primarily through disproportionate restrictions on the use of HVs in defined areas – Low Emission Zones, Congestion Charging and EU action on both (see section on Green Paper on Urban Transport below). The LC is compiling information on these initiatives across Europe and is preparing its appropriate and responses.
? Action to gain further understanding of the HV movement from information from the Research Project Team and from national authorities – on types of vehicles and on trade and skills.
? Daytime running lights: work continues at EU and UN level - FIVA continues to be involved in all the necessary dialogue
? The Diver’s Code has been published in 7 languages, continues to be widely disseminated and is available on the Website.
? The LC will aim to finalise an Environmental Code prior to the AG
? Further discussion - and agreement - is needed on the definition of a historic vehicle.OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIALOGUE
FIVA gets positive confirmation on impact of ban incandescent domestic lightbulbs
Further to the information FIVA provided to the European Lamp Companies Federation (ELCF) (see July EU issues update), the ELCF’s Working Group for the preparation for a EU Regulation intended to ban from sale all traditional incandescent domestic lightbulbs concluded that lamps used in automotive purposes will not be in the scope of the proposed domestic phase out strategy and will not be in the scope of the European Commission Study on domestic lighting.European Commission published Green paper on Urban transport
On 25 September, the European Commission’s DG TREN presented its Green Paper on Urban Mobility entitled “Towards a New Culture for Urban Mobility”. This is the second stage in the Commission’s developments of policy designed to address problems linked to urban transport such as congestion, road safety, security, pollution and climate change.
FIVA contributed to the consultation at the beginning of the year on which this paper is partially based. FIVA’s comments focused on the need for the Commission to recognise that a wide range of different approaches are being taken by local authorities to manage congestion and pollution and in some cases that historic vehicles are being disproportionately and unfairly affected. Encouragingly, in the Green Paper the Commission notes that
“In some cases local traffic restrictions and urban charges have been introduced. These individual actions are laudable for the impacts that they have already achieved. But, according to some stakeholders, there is the risk of creating a fragmented patchwork of urban areas with new “border lines” across Europe. For example, some authorities restrict access to city centres on the basis of EURO standards, others use a different basis.
A lot of stakeholders have called for guidance and development of harmonised rules for urban Green Zones (pedestrianisation, restricted access, speed limits, urban charging, etc.) at the EU level in order to enable a wide use of such measures without creating disproportionate barriers to mobility for citizens and goods. Furthermore, harmonisation and interoperability of similar technologies will reduce costs. The issue of a European registry of all vehicles and crossborder enforcement across cities could be further examined at EU-level, as suggested by some stakeholders.”
It then asks the question for the sake of the consultation:
“Should criteria or guidance be set out for the definition of Green Zones and their restriction measures? What is the best way to ensure their compatibility with free circulation? Is there an issue of cross border enforcement of local rules governing Green Zones?”
However, the Paper also notes that:
“The environmental performance of the existing vehicle fleet could be further improved by setting harmonised minimum performance standards for the operation of vehicles. A gradual tightening of these standards over time could lead to a continuous process of upgrading or phasing out of old heavily polluting vehicles. Such a general approach could help to increase the use of clean and energy efficient vehicles in urban transport and on the longer term prevent a fragmented patchwork of different low-emission zones.”
In this new consultation, FIVA will share with the Commission the information it has gathered of the divergent approaches to traffic restriction already being taken in urban areas and explain how these impact on historic vehicle use. In the cases where historic vehicle use is unfairly restricted, FIVA will explain why the measure is disproportionate to its aim, and explain how the regulator may meet its objectives without unnecessarily impacting on historic vehicle use. FIVA will also continue to argue for the EU to promote a common approach to be taken across the EU to address the problem of urban congestion and pollution in order to avoid this “patchwork of different low-emission zones”.
The consultation on this Green Paper will run through early 2008 and will launch a further debate on possible options for an Action Plan on Urban Mobility scheduled for early autumn of 2008.- 00 -
The FIVA Legislation Commission members are: Horst Brüning (Chairman), Tiddo Bresters (the Netherlands), Andrew Burt , (UK), David Davies (UK), Marek Gacek (Poland), Zoltán Gárdos (Hungary), Dage Groop (Finland), Adalberto Gueli (Italy), Peeter Henning (Belgium), Maik Hirschfeld (Germany), David Hurley (UK), Winfried Kallinger (Austria), Jim Krier (Luxembourg), Victor Papadopoulos (Cyprus), Patrick Rollet (France), Zdenek Ruzicka (Czech Republic) and Carla Fiocchi (Secretariat). Andrew Turner of EPPA works with the Committee.