. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/338 
1 July 2010  
 (10-3585) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
NOTIFICATION 
 
The following notification is being circ ulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Member to Agreement notifying:  EUROPEAN UNION
  
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):     
2. Agency responsible:  European Commission 
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be  indicated if different from above :   
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point 
Fax:  +(32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/
  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [   ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [X], 5.7.1 [   ], other:   
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicab le, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in  addition, where applicable):  Tyres  
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document:  Draft Commission 
Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 1222/2009  of the European Parliament and of the 
Council with regard to the wet grip testing method for C1 tyres (20 pages, in English).      
6. Description of content:  The draft Regulation replaces the current testing method of 
UNECE Regulation 117 for determining the wet grip index of C1 tyres (tyres mainly fitted to passenger cars) set out in Annex I, part B of Regulation (EC) No 1222/2009, with a more 
accurate testing method.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the natu re of urgent problems where applicable:  
The revised testing method builds on the wet grip test method set out in Annex 5 of 
UNECE Regulation 117 with amendments aimed at improving the accuracy of results for 
the purpose of wet grip grading.  Accuracy of testing results is crucial to avoid tyres being 
classified into more than one wet grip class depending on the test results.  
Amendments to the wet grip testing method of UNECE Regulation 117 include : 
- reference tyre SRTT16" (ASTM F2493-08) instead of SRTT 14" (ASTM E1136); 
- revised formula for the calculation of the wet grip index; - refined test conditions for normal and snow tyres; - introduction of temperature and friction coe fficient correction on wet grip index values 
computation. G/TBT/N/EEC/338 
Page 2  
 
  8. Relevant documents:    
-UNECE Regulation 117 (see point 7), publis hed in the OJ L 231 on 29 August 2008, 
p.19-56, available on: 
http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriSer v.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:231:0019:0056:EN:PDF   
-Regulation (EC) No 1222/2009 of the Eu ropean Parliament and of the Council of 
25 November 2009 on the labelling of tyres with respect to fuel efficiency and other essential parameters,  published in OJ L 342 on 22  December 2009, p. 46-58, available on: 
http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriSer v.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:342:0046:0058:EN:PDF  
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    December 2010  
Twentieth day from publication in the Official 
Journal of the EU (about a month after 
adoption approx.)  
(n.b.: the labelling requirements set out in the 
Regulation 1222/2009 w ill only be applicable 
as of 1 November 2012) 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from: National enquiry po int [  ], or address, telephone and fax 
numbers, e-mail and web-site addresses, if available of the other body:    
European Commission 
EU-TBT Enquiry Point Fax:  + (32) 2 299 80 43 E-mail:  eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu The text is available on the EC-TBT Website:  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/ 
  
And can also be downloaded here: 
http://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2010/tbt/eec/10_2536_00_e.pdf