Council: Emissions & Access to Vehicle Repair Information

Publication date: 13 March 2006

Today, the Competitiveness Council took note of information from the German delegation on the draft regulation on type approval of motor vehicles with respect to emissions and on access to vehicle repair information ("Euro 5").

euro5_german_delegation.pdf (79 KB)

The German delegation is asking for more planning security for the car industry. Previous directives on the separate Euro stages always had a fixed date of application which meant planning certainty for manufacturers. With the transitional period now chosen in the draft Regulation, which is to depend on the entry into force of the Regulation, there is no such planning security. Especially since the date of application is related to the ambitious limit values set out in Annex I.

Concerning the values for nitrous oxide, Germany proposes a further reduction on the envisaged NOx limit value from 200 mg/km to 180 mg/km in the case of diesel vehicles. In addition, Germany suggests taking decisions on future NOx limit values for a later stage already now. An ambitious limit value of 80 mg/km could be envisaged for all types of vehicles (the draft regulation foresees further reduction in the values for petrol vehicles to 60 mg/km).

The delegation also questions whether the manufacturers' obligations to provide information on repair instructions to third parties should be included in the Regulation.

FIA Position:
With regard to NOx limit values the FIA
- proposes a value limit of 150 mg/km for diesel vehicles,
- prefers no reduction for petrol cars at this stage in order to achieve fuel neutral emission limits for cars at a later stage.
For more information, see the FIA Policy Statement on Euro 5.

The FIA welcomes current proposals to better regulate access to technical information necessary for repair in the draft  "Euro V" Regulation and urges the EU to take this opportunity to introduce guidelines for the provision of standardised access to vehicle repair information using the OASIS standard developed jointly by all stakeholders several years ago.

Background:
The discussion in the Competitiveness Council is a result of the CARS 21 exercise. As part of its recommendations for better law-making, CARS 21 proposed that all measures that may affect the international competitiveness of the European car industry should be addressed in the Competitiveness Council. The Environment Council held a policy debate on 9 March on this proposal.

Related News Item:
- Environment Council on Euro V standard (9 March 2006)
- Clean cars: Commission proposes to reduce emissions (21 December 2005)