For Further FIVA News Scroll Down
FIVA November 07 Update .pdf
(This format requires you to have Adobe Acrobat Reader which is a free download)
The web version is as follows:
Nov 2007
OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIALOGUE
European Commission decides against proposing to require daytime running light use In 2006, the European Commission announced its intention to draft a proposal for a Directive which would require all vehicles to use daytime running lights (see November 2006 EU issues update). It then consulted stakeholders to ascertain the most appropriate way to do so. However, after much deliberation, the European Commission has now decided that it will not propose such a Directive and will only continue discussions at EU and UN level with the objective to adopt rules requiring all new vehicles to be equipped with have dedicated daytime running lights. Therefore, there is no longer a possibility of all vehicles having to use “dipped-beam” lights during daylight hours. The Commission's decision was primarily a result of its concerns that the safety of vulnerable road users – including motorcyclists – may not benefit from “dipped-beam”
DRL use. The Commission announced its decision during a presentation to a European
Motorcycle Industry Association conference at the end of November.
Member States unable to agree Passenger Car Taxation Directive
In late November, the EU Member States held a discussion in the European Council on the European Commission's proposal on passenger car taxation. The proposal aims to require Member States to gradually replace car registration taxes with annual circulation taxes and for Member States to link 25 per cent of the tax paid on cars to CO2 emissions by 2008, rising to 50 per cent by 2010. However, Member States are still unable to agree a common approach – and may not be able to do so in the immediate future as the Directive needs to be adopted with a unanimous vote. FIVA has maintained dialogue with the Commission department responsible for the Directive so that the Commission understands that historic vehicles are taxed differently to “passenger cars” in most member states and to ensure that there is no intention that the proposal will not impact the existing historic vehicle tax structures.
INFORMATION
Germany and France disagree over car CO2 cuts
The European Commission is due to publish its proposal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from ew cars before the end of the year. However, France is now threatening to block progress on the proposal if the chosen approach unfairly disadvantages manufacturers of smaller vehicles – on which profit margins are much tighter. In parallel, German manufacturers are calling for overall emission reduction target to be differentiated between vehicle models, with less stringent average limits for larger cars even though a recent report by the environmental group Transport & Environment has shown that average CO2 emissions from new cars made in France and Italy fell by an average 1.6 per cent in 2006 while emissions from new German-made vehicles increased by 0.6 per cent. The report also noted that Peugeot-Citroen was the lowest emitting manufacturer in 2006, with a fleet average of 142 grams of CO2 per kilometre (g/km); Fiat and Renault came
EU LEGISLATION UPDATE
NOVEMBER 2007
2
second and third in the ranking, with 144g/km and 147g/km respectively; but German manufacturers Daimler (188g/km) and BMW (184g/km) had the worst average emissions.
Germany Parliament approves exemption for historic vehicles from urban vehicle restrictions
The German Parliament has adopted a law which allows historic cars unrestricted access to
“low emission zones of urban areas. The decision was introduced as an amendment to the regulation on low-emission vehicle labelling and was acceptable to the Parliamentarians as they recognised that the 210,000 historic vehicles (155,000 with historic “H” license plates and 55 000 with red 07 plates – the transferable license plates for historic cars) are not used enough to have an impact on the overall PM emissions footprint of a city. FIVA will use this positive development to help
other administrations/decision makers recognise that historic vehicles should not be disproportionably and negatively impacted by environmental laws designed to improve air quality. FIVA understands that this new provision will also apply to non-German historic vehicles.
- 00 -
The FIVA Legislation Commission members are: Winfried Kallinger (Chairman), Tiddo Bresters (Vice Chairman), Lars Genild (Vice Chairman), Patrick Rollet (Member/Secretary), Andrew Burt (Member), David Davies (Member), Carla Fiocchi (Member), Zoltán Gárdos (Member), Adalberto Gueli (Member), Maik Hirschfeld (Member), Horst Brüning (Member coopted), Peeter Henning (Member coopted), and Andrew Turner of EPPA works with the Committee.
2007 Information
OPPORTUNITIES FOR DIALOGUE
FIVA works with the industry on the proposals to ban incandescent domestic light bulbs Further to the information provided by the June EU Issues Update, FIVA has maintained its dialogue with the European Lamp Companies Federation (ELCF) in preparation for a EU Regulation intended to ban from sale all traditional incandescent domestic light bulbs from 2015.
FIVA has provided ELCF with information on bulbs used by historic vehicles which the Federation will now present to its members in order to find a solution to a potential problem of either a ban on the manufacture of such bulbs or a possibly a reduction in supply as a result of the anticipated regulation. ELCF has indicated its clear willingness to help achieve a solution acceptable to FIVA.
INFORMATION
Debate on CO2 emissions plan continues
The environmental organization Transport and the Environment (T and E), has criticized as too weak the European Parliament Rapporteur’s report (see June 2007 EU issues update) on the Commission’s proposed plan for further CO2 reductions from cars. T and E believes that the car industry can achieve the 120g/km by 2012 - moreover, it wants the limits to be enforceable and for penalties to be imposed on manufacturers exceeding the limits – proposing that they pay €150 per gram over the limit for every car sold.Meanwhile, the car manufacturers have continued to call for an integrated approach to emission reductions based on engine improvements and the introduction of other measures such as tyre pressure monitors. At a recent Hearing on the issue, a Michelin representative stated that tyre rolling resistance was responsible for up to 20 per cent of CO2 emissions from cars and called for regulatory support to increase the use of low rolling resistance tyres, including a harmonized maximum EU tyre rolling resistance limit. He also suggested that the manufacturers could be awarded a "CO2 bonus" for equipping new vehicles with low resistance tyres as standard. In parallel, the debate is also focusing on how the system might work in practice, and specifically on how to turn an overall market-wide limit on CO2 emissions into separate model-specific targets for different sized cars. The car industry has said that the calculation should be based on vehicle weight, thereby also removing the incentives for carmakers to produce heavier cars as it would make their targets harder to achieve. But T and E believes that a distinction between large and small cars should be based on a vehicle's "footprint" - the product of its length and width.
EU LEGISLATION UPDATE
JULY 2007
2
European Commission wants stricter emission limits for new trucks and buses
The European Commission has announced its intent to further tighter limits on air pollution emissions from trucks and buses by suggesting four possible scenarios that could be adopted as new Euro VI standards. The Commission wants to make firm proposals by the end of the year which would apply to particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and ammonia from heavy-duty diesel and natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas engines. In two of the four scenarios, achieving the stricter air pollutant limits would actually lead to higher carbon dioxide emissions – and so the Commission is consulting to ascertain whether stakeholders are prepared to pay the extra carbon cost to bring down emissions of the other pollutants. Of these four, one would require a higher rate of cooled exhaust gas recirculation and more efficient selective catalytic reduction, another suggests stricter NOx limit but more lenient PM limit - both would increase CO2 emissions by between two and six per cent and both would add an additional €3000-6000 per vehicle. The other options would be slighter less costly. - 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.
************************************************************
Second Article
2007
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:
䀂? 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; 䀂? 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. 䀂? 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.
䀂? Daytime running lights: work continues at EU and UN level - FIVA continues to be involved in all the necessary dialogue
䀂? The Diver’s Code has been published in 7 languages, continues to be widely disseminated and is available on the Website.
䀂? The LC will aim to finalise an Environmental Code prior to the AG
䀂? 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 light bulbs
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 light bulbs 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.
EU LEGISLATION UPDATE
SEPTEMBER 2007
2
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 recognize 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 centers on the basis of EURO standards, others use a different basis. A lot of stakeholders have called for guidance and development of harmonized 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, harmonization and interoperability of similar technologies will reduce costs. The issue of a European registry of all vehicles and cross border 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 the irrestriction 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 3 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.
