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 directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on limit values for benzene and carbon monoxide in ambient air

1998/0333 (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 directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on limit values for benzene and carbon monoxide in ambient air

1. PROCEDURAL MATTERS

- The proposal was presented to the Council on 1 December 1998 (COM(1998)591-1998/0333 COD - OJ C 53, 24.02.1999, p.8).

- The Economic and Social Committee adopted its favourable opinion (no proposed amendments) on 25 March 1999 (CES/1999/333). The Committee of the Regions decided at its session of 28 June 1999 that it would not give an opinion.

- The European Parliament gave its opinion (first reading) at its sitting of 2 December 1999.

- The Commission adopted the amended proposal on 11.04.2000 (COM(2000)223 - 1998/0333 (COD)).

- At its meeting on 13 December 1999 the Council unanimously reached a political agreement with a view to adopting a Common Position.

- The Council's Common Position was adopted on 10.04.2000.

2. PURPOSE OF THE Commission's PROPOSAL

The purpose of this Directive is to set limit values for the protection of human health for benzene and carbon monoxide as required under Article 4 in connection with Annex I of the Council Directive on ambient air quality assessment and management (96/62/EC).

3. COMMISSION'S COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION

3.1. General comments

The key items during negotiations were the extent of public information and the possibility of an extension to the timetable to meet the limit value for benzene. According to a recent study the achievement of limit values for benzene may be especially difficult in Southern Europe mainly due to climatic conditions. Therefore the possibility of a 5-year-derogation has been introduced under certain conditions.

Concerning the means and extent of public information, the agreed Common Position accounts for Parliament's concerns for the public to be fully and readily informed on air quality wherever feasible. Compared to the Commission's original proposal the agreed text in general extends Member States' obligation to make information on concentrations and results of air quality assessment available to the public.

The majority of Parliament's amendments have been incorporated into the Common Position in whole or in spirit. The text contains several changes in wording or on technical expressions compared to the Commission's amended proposal. In general the intention of those has been to clarify the meaning and to bring the text in line with the Council Directive 1999/30/EC which has been the first to be adopted under the framework of the Council Directive 96/62/EC.

3.2. Outcome of Parliament's amendments from 1st reading

3.2.1. Parliament's amendments accepted by the Commission in the Commission's amended proposal and incorporated in full, in part or in principle in the Common Position

Amendments No 1, 2 (in principle), 4 (in principle), 6, 7 (partially), 8, 9 (partially), 10, 15 (partially), 21.

Preamble

- Amendment 1 (Recital 5a of the amended proposal) has been incorporated as Recital 8. It is identical to Recital 4 of Directive 1999/30/EC in stating that Member States may impose stricter requirements than those in the proposal, in particular to protect vulnerable groups.

- Amendment 2 (Recital 5b of the amended proposal) has been incorporated in principle into Recital 9. It states that benzene is a human genotoxic carcinogen and that there is no identifiable threshold below which there is no risk to health.

- Amendment 4 (Recital 7a of the amended proposal) has been incorporated in principle into Recital 13 by requiring that information on concentrations of benzene and carbon monoxide should be forwarded to the Commission as a basis for regular reports.

Articles

- Amendment 6 (Article 5 (7)) was incorporated. It makes clear that technical amendments to the Directive may not result in any change to the limit values.

- Amendment 7 (Article 7 (1), paragraph 1) has been incorporated insofar as the list of possible means to inform the public has been extended.

- Amendment 8 (Article 7 (1), paragraph 2) requiring public information on carbon monoxide to be updated every hour wherever practicable has been incorporated.

- Amendment 9 (Article 7 (2)) has been incorporated insofar as Member States will need actively to disseminate the results of air quality assessment (Annex VI(II)) but not the documentation on site selection (Annex IV(III)).

- Amendment 10 (Article 8 (1)) has been incorporated requiring the Commission to pay particular attention to vulnerable population groups when assessing any new scientific evidence on the effects of benzene and carbon monoxide on human health.

Annexes

- Amendment 15 (Annex Va) has been incorporated partially. The Annex has been extended by the requirement that where there is more than one station at least one should monitor traffic and another one urban background.

- Amendment 21 (Annex VI(I)) has been incorporated in allowing random measuring to be used provided it is accurate enough.

3.2.2. Changes made by Council to the Commission's amended proposal

Amendments 11 and 17 have not been accepted by the Commission. However, the Common Position makes changes to the articles affected by those two amendments. Any other important changes to the Commission's amended proposal are also described below.

Preamble

- Recital 7 has been added by Council and reflects the amendment of Article 5(7) mentioned above. It corresponds to recital 11 of the Council Directive 1999/30/EC.

- Recital 10 refers to the possibility of derogation introduced by the Common Position under Article 3(2) as described below.

Articles

- Amendment 17 (Article 3(2)) deletes any possibility of derogation. It was not accepted by the Commission in its amended proposal. Article 3(2) as formulated in the Common Position however sets tighter conditions for the granting of any extension to meet the limit value for benzene. Only one extension is possible, for a period of up to five years, the conditions under which it may be granted (climatic and economic) are laid down in more detail and Member States are required to provide a full justification for their application. The amended article sets a limit value of 10 µg/m³ to apply during any extension.

- The second part of Article 7(3) of the Commission's original proposal requires the Commission to propose a limit to the length of any further extension to the timetable for meeting the limit value for benzene when implementation of the Directive is reviewed in 2004. Amendment 11 would have deleted that part of Article 7(3) as a consequence of eliminating the possibility of any derogation by Amendment 17. In accordance with its rejection of Amendment 17 the Commission did not accept Amendment 11 either. As the Common Position now limits possible extensions under Article 3(2) to five years only, setting a limit to extensions in 2004 becomes obsolete. The Common Position reflects this in deleting that part of Article 8(3). It restricts the possibility of deciding on further extensions under the review in the year 2004 on the condition that a high level of protection of human health and the environment is maintained.

- The Common Position clarifies Member States' obligation to inform the public by extending Article 7(1), paragraph 2, by explicitly referring to the averaging periods of the limit values as given in Annexes I and II.

- The Common Position deletes subparagraphs a to c of Article 8(2) considering them to go beyond the scope of this Directive though the principles are to be supported. Council considers the overall air quality and transboundary transports to be an integral part of the Commission's planned Clean Air for Europe Programme.

Annexes

- Annex I of the Commission's proposal sets the margin of tolerance for benzene to 5 µg/m³ (100 %) on entry into force. It is to be reduced by 1 µg/m³ every 12 months to reach 0 % by January 2010. The Common Position sets 1 January 2006 as the starting date for this reduction instead of 1 January 2003. This ensures that the margin of tolerance is defined each year by whole numbers instead of fractions of µg/m³.

- For the reasons explained above in Annex II the Common Position sets a margin of tolerance of 6 mg/m³ for CO on the entry into force instead of 5 mg/m³. This margin of tolerance is to be reduced by 2 mg/m³ every 12 months with a starting date of 1 January 2003, which is the same as in the amended proposal. Without changing the meaning, the expression for the averaging period for the limit value for CO in Annex II has been changed in the Common Position. For clarification a paragraph has been added after the table which describes the determination of the maximum daily 8-hour mean from hourly data.

3.2.3. Amendments not included in the Commission's amended proposal and not in the Common Position for reasons explained in the explanatory memorandum of the amended proposal.

Amendments 3, 12, 13 and 14 have not been accepted by the Commission. Council made no proposal to include them in the Common Position.

4. Conclusions and general remarks

The Commission agrees with the text of the Common Position. It is of the opinion that the proposed changes help to clarify the meaning of the Commission's original proposal and to bring it in line with the Council Directive 1999/30/EC, the first that has been adopted under the framework of the Council Directive 96/62/EC. In general the text of the Common Position takes into account most of the concerns Parliament expressed during its 1st reading without weakening the Commission's original proposal. In particular, concerning the possibility of derogations from the general deadline for meeting the limit value for benzene, the Commission considers the text of the Common Position to be an acceptable compromise. It provides flexibility in the absence of good data on present day concentrations of benzene whilst ensuring that extensions cannot be granted except unless it is clearly demonstrated that they are essential.