. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/374 
25 March 2011  
 (11-1487) 
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 governme nt 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:  mailto: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 applicable, 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 grading of  tyres, the measuremen t of rolling resistance 
and the verification procedure (9 pages, in English).    
6. Description of content:  The draft Regulation introduces a wet grip grading for C2 and C3 
tyres measured according to ISO 15222. The displa y of the wet grip class of C2 and C3 tyres 
will become mandatory from 1 November 2012 fo r all tyres produced after 1 July 2012. It 
also clarifies the verificati on procedure set out in Annex IV of Regulation 1222/2009 and 
makes the alignment procedure of test laborator ies for the measurement of rolling resistance 
mandatory.  
The draft Regulation will be applicable six mont hs after its entry into force, meaning that 
tyres may be placed on the market with the labe l on a voluntary basis after that date and 
before 1 November 2012 (the mandatory applica tion date of the labelling scheme on all tyres 
produced after 1 July 2012). 
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable:  The 
wet grip grading of C2 and C3 tyres is intr oduced in compliance with Article 11 (a) of 
Regulation 1222/2009 considering that a "suita ble harmonised testin g method", the ISO 
15222, will be available from the second quarter of 2011. The aim of the wet grip grading is 
to avoid a downgrading of the current wet grip performances of tyres due  to improvements in  G/TBT/N/EEC/374 
Page 2  
 
  their fuel efficiency.  It is also likely to have  a positive impact on road safety if it drives 
market transformation towards class A.  
The alignment procedure of test  laboratories for the measurement of rolling resistance aims at 
increasing the reproducibility of test results. Accu racy of testing results is indeed crucial to 
avoid that a tyre may be classified into more than one fuel efficiency class depending on the 
test results. 
8. Relevant documents:   
-  UNECE Regulation 117 (see  point 7), published in the OJ L 231 on 29.08.2008, 
p.19-56, available on:  
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2008:231:0019:0056:EN:PDF   
- -Regulation (EC) No 1222/2009 of the European  Parliament and of the Council of 25 
November 2009 on the labelling of tyres with  respect to fuel efficiency and other 
essential parameters,  pub lished in OJ L 342 on 22.12.2009, p. 46-58, available on: 
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/L exUriServ.do?uri=OJ :L:2009:342:0046:0058:EN:PDF    
9. Proposed date of adoption:   
Proposed date of entry into force:    September 2011  
Twentieth day from publica tion in the Official 
Journal of the EU (about a month after adoption approx.)  
The draft Regulation will be applicable from six 
months after entry into force. 
(n.b.: the labelling requirements set out in the 
Regulation 1222/2009 will only be mandatory as of 1 November 2012) 
10. Final date for comments:  60 days from date of notification. 
11. Text available from: National enquiry point [  ], or addre ss, 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:  mailto:eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
The text is available on the EU-TBT Website :  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/tbt/  
and  http://members.wto.org/crnatt achments/2011/tbt/EEC/11_0915_00_e.pdf