Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee on the "Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Directive 98/70/EC"

(2002/C 36/23)

On 7 June 2001 the Council decided to consult the Economic and Social Committee, under Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Community, on the above-mentioned proposal.

The Section for the Single Market, Production and Consumption, which was responsible for preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 26 September 2001. The rapporteur was Mr Gafo Fernández.

At its 385th plenary session of 17 and 18 October 2001 (meeting of 18 October), the Economic and Social Committee unanimously adopted the following opinion.

1. Introduction

1.1. The amendment of Directive 98/70/EC has a dual purpose: firstly, to make it easier to meet the voluntary objective of increasing average efficiency to 140 g CO2 per kilometre by 2008 (for European manufacturers) and 2009 (for imports from Japan and Korea) for new passenger cars put on the EU market in those years; and secondly, to confirm that the new specifications for petrol and diesel fuels are to apply from 2005.

1.2. To meet the commitments entered into, it was necessary to improve the quality of petrol and diesel fuels currently in use. More specifically the maximum sulphur content of such fuels had to be reduced to 50 ppm (parts per million) from the present 150 ppm for petrol and 350 ppm for automotive diesel. This will also enable emissions from previously-registered vehicles to be cut.

1.3. The draft directive goes further than these limits, which are necessary if the car sector is to fulfil its voluntary efficiency commitment of 140 g CO2 per kilometre: it sets maximum sulphur content at 10 ppm for both petrol and diesel for 2011, allowing new and more severe efficiency commitments for both diesel and petrol vehicles to be established at a later date.

1.4. In order to meet these objectives, an interim reference-point has been introduced, establishing that in 2005 both petrol and diesel must be available on a balanced basis throughout the EU, so that maximum performance can be obtained from the new-generation vehicles specifically designed to use these fuels.

1.5. The scope of Directive 98/70/EC is also consolidated to include diesel fuels for non-road mobile machinery and agricultural tractors - which had been excluded from its scope when the earlier legislation referring to them had been suspended - setting a limit of 2000 ppm when the draft directive comes into force, to be reduced to 1000 ppm in 2008, and leaving the imposition of a limit of 500 ppm - or whatever sulphur content is required at any given time for automotive diesel - to the discretion of the Member States.

1.6. Other elements of the proposal are the introduction of a quality system based on a forthcoming European standard, or on equivalent national quality arrangements. The Commission is also to be notified annually by the Member States of the marketed volumes of such fuels.

1.7. Lastly, the Commission will review its specifications by 31 December 2006 in the light of CO2 emission reduction commitments, vehicle emissions of polluting gases in relation to air quality directives, agreements with car manufacturers, and the development of technologies to cut such emissions.

2. Comments

2.1. Although it has some reservations, which will be set out below, the Committee welcomes the proposal to amend Directive 98/70/EC, which aims to complete a qualitative leap forward in the quality of fuels and should enable the voluntary efficiency objectives set by car manufacturers and importers to be met. The Committee wishes to draw attention to the major effort made over the last 20 years regarding maximum sulphur content, particularly in petrols, which has brought levels down from 6000 ppm to the present 350 and is set to fall to 50 ppm within the next ten years.

2.2. The Committee accepts the European Commission's arguments regarding the net positive effect of an overall reduction in CO2 emissions, but would have preferred the Commission's studies to have examined the impact on each individual Member State in greater detail.

2.3. The Committee has difficulty in understanding the estimated impact of implementing the directive on the final price of these products. The additional costs, estimated at 0.25 eurocents per litre for petrol and approximately 0.60 eurocents for diesel, are far lower than the 1.53 eurocents per litre by which a recent Council decision, prompted by the European Commission, authorises a Member State to reduce the tax on these low-sulphur products in order to facilitate their rapid market penetration. The Committee therefore urges the Commission to revise the figures for costs given in the explanatory memorandum to the directive: otherwise the tax reduction approved by the Council could be classified as state aid.

2.4. In order to prevent confusion, the Committee wishes to remove the expression "sulphur content which shall be less than 10 mg/kg (ppm)" from the amended Article 3 and replace it with "maximum sulphur content of 10 mg/kg (ppm)". The former expression is technically incorrect, since there is no reliable method for measuring the tenths of a millionth involved in a content of 9.99 ppm, as required under the present wording of the directive, and it does not match the wording used in Annexes I to IV.

2.5. Regarding fuel availability, the Commission proposal stipulates that from 2005, the Member States must ensure that zero sulphur fuels are available "on a balanced geographic basis".

2.5.1. The Committee believes that the concept of availability should be firmed up by introducing a quantifiable parameter into the directive. The Committee therefore calls for mandatory availability of such fuels in at least 25 % of the service stations in the Member States located on ordinary roads, and in 50 % of service stations located on motorways or on the European Union's external borders.

2.6. The Committee would have preferred that national, non-harmonised limits for sulphur content in diesel used in non-road mobile machinery and agricultural tractors be applied at national level only following completion of the procedure established in Article 95.4 of the EC Treaty.

2.7. Lastly, the Committee believes that after a precautionary period following the appearance of the Community standard for monitoring these fuels, the Member States must apply the standard and abandon their own, traditional national arrangements, even if they produce the same results.

Brussels, 18 October 2001.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke Frerichs