COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC-Treaty concerning the Common position of the Council on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive amending Council Directive 70/220/EEC concerning measures to be taken against air pollution by emissions from motor vehicles

2000/040 (COD)

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to the second subparagraph of Article 251 (2) of the EC-Treaty concerning the Common position of the Council on the proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive amending Council Directive 70/220/EEC concerning measures to be taken against air pollution by emissions from motor vehicles

1. Background to the proposal

- A proposal to amend Directive 70/220/EEC was adopted and presented by the Commission on 14 February 2000 (OBD for gas fuelled vehicles) (Reference COM(2000)42 final).

- The European Parliament approved the Commission proposal in its first reading opinion on 17 May 2000.

- The Economic and Social Committee delivered its opinion on 24 May 2000.

- The Council working party on technical harmonisation reached a solution with a view to the adoption of a common position on 22 June 2000.

- The Council adopted its common position on 9 October 2000.

2. Objective of the proposal

The objective of the proposal is to amend Directive 70/220/EC, as last amended by Directive 1999/102/EC, to provide for dates from which on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems are mandatory on passenger cars and light commercial vehicles that have positive-ignition engines and which use gas fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or natural gas (NG). Such vehicles may be fuelled only with either LPG or NG or be capable of switching between petrol and either LPG or NG.

3. The Common Position adopted by the Council

The Council has adopted a common position that will provide the dates from when OBD will be applicable to vehicles equipped with positive-ignition engines and fuelled with petrol and/or LPG or NG:

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The Council agreed with the Commission's proposal and made just one amendment. The date of 1 January 2004 from which OBD will apply to all types of vehicles of category M1 <= 2 500 kg and vehicles of category N1 class I has been advanced by two years over the date proposed by the Commission.

4. Conclusions

At the present time vehicles with positive-ignition engines that are fuelled only with either LPG or NG or are capable of switching between using petrol and either LPG or NG are covered by the scope of Directive 70/220/EEC, as amended by Directive 98/69/EC, and must therefore comply with the requirements for OBD as given in that directive. It is clear that such vehicles cannot, for valid technical reasons, comply with the OBD requirements as laid down in Directive 98/69/EC. The consequence is that these vehicles cannot obtain EU type-approval and the only procedure open to obtaining a type-approval is under the administrative provisions of Article 8(2)(c) of the type-approval framework directive.

The Council has agreed with the Commission that new vehicle types equipped with positive-ignition engines fuelled only with either LPG or NG or capable of switching between using petrol and either LPG or NG should be given additional time to comply with OBD requirements for the purposes of type-approval and should therefore be given a time limited derogation against having to meet the OBD requirements of Directive 98/69/EC (see section 3). This will allow these vehicles that have demonstrated a good environmental performance to obtain type-approval and also allow time for the Commission to propose appropriate OBD requirements specific to vehicles that use LPG or NG fuels.

The Council also agrees with the Commission that existing types of vehicles of category M1 > 2 500 kg and category N1 classes II and III should meet the OBD requirements from 1 January 2007. However, the Council has decided that existing types of vehicles of category M1 <= 2 500 kg and category N1 class I should meet the OBD requirements two years earlier than proposed by the Commission, i.e. 1 January 2004. The Commission can accept this change of date.

It is clear that a derogation for these vehicles is necessary and specific OBD requirements need to be defined in good time allowing sufficient development and engineering lead-time for the industry to comply.