COMMON POSITION (EC) No 10/2000

adopted by the Council on 2 December 1999

with a view to adopting Directive 1999/.../EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of ... on the technical roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Community

(2000/C 29/01)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 71(1)(c) and (d) thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee(2),

After consulting the Committee of the Regions,

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(3),

Whereas:

(1) the growth of traffic presents all Member States with safety and environmental problems of a similar nature and seriousness;

(2) it is in the interests of road safety, environmental protection and equitable competition that commercial vehicles should be used only if they are maintained to a high degree of technical roadworthiness;

(3) checks on the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles, in accordance with Directive 96/96/EC of 20 December 1996 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers(4), ensure that these vehicles undergo an inspection by an authorised body every year;

(4) Article 4 of Directive 94/12/EC(5) provides for a multidirectional approach to the cost/effectiveness aspects of the measures intended to reduce the pollution caused by road transport; whereas the European "Auto-oil I" programme incorporated that approach and gave an objective assessment of all the most profitable measures in the fields of vehicle technology, fuel quality, monitoring and maintenance as well as non-technical measures, in order to reduce emissions by road transport;

(5) in view of that approach, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Directive 98/70/EC(6), intended to improve fuel quality and, with a view to laying down stricter emission standards, Directive 98/69/EC(7), for private motor cars and light commercial vehicles and Directive 1999/.../EC(8) for heavy goods vehicles;

(6) this Directive forms part of the same approach, but it would appear to be more effective from the point of view of environmental protection not at this stage to tighten the standards laid down for roadworthiness tests in Directive 96/96/EC but to provide for technical roadside inspections in order to ensure application of that Directive throughout the year;

(7) the regulated annual roadworthiness test is in fact considered not to be sufficient to guarantee that commercial vehicles tested are in roadworthy condition throughout the year;

(8) effective enforcement through targeted additional technical roadside inspection is an important cost-effective measure to control the standard of maintenance of commercial vehicles on the road;

(9) roadside roadworthiness inspections should be carried out without discrimination on grounds of the nationality of the driver or of the country of registration or entry into service of the commercial vehicle;

(10) the method of inspection selection should be based on a targeted approach, giving greatest effort to identifying vehicles that seem most likely to be poorly maintained and thereby enhancing the authorities' operational effectiveness and minimising the costs and delays to drivers and operators;

(11) in the event of serious deficiencies in a vehicle inspected it must be possible to ask the competent authorities of the Member State in which the vehicle is registered or in which the vehicle was brought into service to take appropriate measures and inform the requesting Member State of any follow-up measures taken;

(12) the measures necessary for implementing this Directive shall be adopted in accordance with Council Decision/1999/468/EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission(9);

(13) in accordance with the subsidiarity and proportionality principles as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty, the objectives of the proposed action, namely to establish a regime of roadside inspections of commercial vehicles circulating in the Community, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can, therefore, by reason of the scale of the action be better achieved by the Community; this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

Article 1

1. In order to improve road safety and the environment, the purpose of this Directive shall be to ensure that commercial vehicles circulating within the territories of the Member States of the Community comply more fully with certain technical conditions imposed by Directive 96/96/EC.

2. This Directive establishes certain conditions for roadside inspections of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating within the territory of the Community.

3. Without prejudice to Community regulations, this Directive shall not, however, affect the Member States' right to carry out inspections not covered by this Directive or to check other aspects of road transport, in particular those relating to commercial vehicles. On the other hand, there is nothing to prevent a Member State, in the context of inspections not covered by the scope of this Directive, from checking the items listed in Annex I in places other than on the public highway.

Article 2

For the purposes of this Directive:

(a) "commercial vehicle" shall mean those motor vehicles and trailers defined in categories 1, 2 and 3 of Annex I to Directive 96/96/EC;

(b) "technical roadside inspection" shall mean an inspection of a technical nature, not announced by the authorities and therefore unexpected, of a commercial vehicle circulating within the territory of a Member State carried out on the public highway by the authorities, or under their supervision;

(c) "roadworthiness test" shall mean a test of a vehicle's technical roadworthiness as provided for in Annex II to Directive 96/96/EC.

Article 3

1. Each Member State shall introduce technical roadside inspections such as will achieve the objectives stated in Article 1 as regards commercial vehicles covered by this Directive, bearing in mind the national arrangements applicable to such vehicles under Directive 96/96/EC.

2. Every technical roadside inspection shall be carried out without discrimination on grounds of the nationality of the driver or of the country of registration or entry into service of the commercial vehicle, bearing in mind the need to minimise the costs and delays entailed for drivers and operators.

Article 4

1. A technical roadside inspection shall comprise one, two or all of the following aspects:

(a) a visual assessment of the maintenance condition of the commercial vehicle when stationary;

(b) a check on a recent roadside technical inspection report as referred to in Article 5 or on the documentation attesting to the vehicle's technical roadworthiness and in particular, in the case of a vehicle registered or put into service in a Member State, proof that the commercial vehicle has undergone a statutory technical roadworthiness test in accordance with Directive 96/96/EC;

(c) an inspection for irregularities covering one, more than one or all of the items to be checked listed in Annex I, point 10.

2. An inspection of the braking systems and exhaust emissions shall be carried out in accordance with the rules laid down in Annex II.

3. Before carrying out an inspection of the items listed in Annex I, point 10, the inspector shall take into consideration the last roadworthiness certificate and/or a recent technical roadside inspection report which the driver may produce.

The inspector may also take into consideration any other safety certificate issued by an approved body, presented, where appropriate, by the driver.

Where these certificates and/or report prove that an inspection of one of the items listed in Annex I, point 10, has been carried out in the course of the preceding three months, that item shall not be checked again, except where justified in particular on the grounds of an obvious defect and/or irregularity.

Article 5

1. The technical roadside inspection report relating to the inspection referred to in Article 4(1)(c) shall be drawn up by the authority or inspector having carried it out. A specimen report is contained in Annex I, point 10 of which contains a checklist. The authority or inspector must tick the relevant boxes. The report must be given to the driver of the commercial vehicle.

2. If the authority or the inspector considers that deficiencies in the maintenance of a commercial vehicle may represent a safety risk such that, as regards the brakes in particular, further examination is justified, the commercial vehicle may be subjected to a more elaborate test at a testing centre in the vicinity, designated by the Member State, in accordance with Article 2 of Directive 96/96/EC.

If it becomes clear that a commercial vehicle presents a serious risk to its occupants or other road users either during the roadside inspection referred to in Article 4(1) or during the more elaborate test referred to in the first subparagraph of this paragraph, use of that vehicle may be prohibited until the dangerous deficiencies discovered have been rectified.

Article 6

Every two years, before 31 March, Member States shall communicate to the Commission the data collected relating to the previous two years concerning the number of commercial vehicles checked, classified by category in accordance with Annex I, point 6 and by the country of registration, and the items checked and defects noted, on the basis of Annex I, point 10.

The first data submitted shall cover a period of two years beginning on 1 January ...(10).

The Commission shall forward this information to the European Parliament.

Article 7

1. Member States shall assist one another in applying this Directive. In particular, they shall provide each other with details of the office(s) responsible for carrying out the checks and of the names of contact persons.

2. Serious deficiencies in a commercial vehicle belonging to a non-resident, in particular those resulting in a ban on using the vehicle, shall be reported to the competent authorities of the Member State in which the vehicle is registered or has been put into service by means of the specimen report in Annex I, without prejudice to the prosecution in accordance with the legislation in force in the Member States in which the deficiency was recorded.

Without prejudice to Article 5, the competent authorities of the Member State in which a serious deficiency has been found in a commercial vehicle belonging to a non-resident may ask the competent authorities of the Member State in which the vehicle is registered or has been put into service to take appropriate measures with regard to the offender, for example submitting the vehicle to a further roadworthiness inspection.

The competent authorities to which such a request is made shall notify the competent authorities of the Member State in which the deficiencies of the commercial vehicle were found of any measures taken with regard to the offender.

Article 8

Any amendments which are necessary to adapt Annex I or the technical standards defined in Annex II to technical progress shall be adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9(2).

Such amendments must not, however, result in the scope of this Directive being extended.

Article 9

1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Committee on the Adaptation to Technical Progress set up pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 96/96/EC, hereinafter referred to as "the Committee".

2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Articles 5 and 7 of Decision 1999/468/EC shall apply, in compliance with the provisions of Article 8 thereof.

The period provided for in Article 5(6) of Decision 1999/468/EC shall be laid down as three months.

3. The Committee shall adopt its rules of procedure.

Article 10

Within a year of receiving the data referred to in Article 6 from the Member States, the Commission shall submit to the Council a report on the application of this Directive together with a summary of the results achieved.

The first report shall cover the period of two years beginning on 1 January ...(11).

Article 11

1. The Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary for them to comply with this Directive no later than ...(12). They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.

2. When the Member States adopt those measures they shall include references to this Directive or shall add such references on their official publication. The Member States shall lay down the manner in which such references shall be made.

3. The Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the provisions of national law that they adopt in the field governed by this Directive.

Article 12

This Directive shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Article 13

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at ...

For the European Parliament

The President

For the Council

The President

(1) OJ C 190, 18.6.1998, p. 10.

(2) OJ C 407, 28.12.1998, p. 112.

(3) Opinion of the European Parliament of 9 February 1999, (OJ C 150, 28.5.1999, p. 27), Council Common Position of 2 December 1999 and Decision of the European Parliament of ... (not yet published in the Official Journal).

(4) OJ L 46, 17.2.1997, p. 1. Directive as amended by Commission Directive 1999/52/EC (OJ L 142, 5.6.1999, p. 26).

(5) Directive 94/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 March 1994 relating to measures to be taken against air pollution by emissions from motor vehicles and amending Directive 70/220/EEC (OJ L 100, 19.4.1994, p. 42).

(6) Directive 98/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Council Directive 93/12/EEC (OJ L 350, 28.12.1998, p. 58).

(7) Directive 98/69/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 October 1998 relating to measures to be taken against air pollution by emissions from motor vehicles and amending Council Directive 70/220/EEC (OJ L 350, 28.12.1998, p. 1).

(8) Directive 1999/.../EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of ... on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to measures to be taken against the emission of gaseous and particulate pollutants from compression ignition engines for use in vehicles, and the emission of gaseous pollutants from positive ignition engines fuelled with natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas for use in vehicles and amending Council Directive 88/77/EEC (OJ L ...).

(9) OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23.

(10) Two years from 1 January of the date following the date of entry into force of this Directive.

(11) Two years after 1 January which follows the date of entry into force of this Directive.

(12) Two years as from the date of the entry into force of this Directive.

ANNEX I

SPECIMEN TECHNICAL ROADSIDE INSPECTION REPORT INCORPORATING A CHECKLIST

(Directive 1999/.../EC)

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ANNEX II

RULES FOR TESTING AND/OR CHECKING BRAKING SYSTEMS AND EXHAUST EMISSIONS

1. Specific conditions concerning brakes

It is required that every part of the braking system and its means of operation be maintained in good and efficient working order and be properly adjusted.

The vehicle's brakes must fulfil the following braking functions:

(a) for motor vehicles and their trailers and semi-trailers, a service brake capable of slowing down the vehicle and of stopping it safely, rapidly and efficiently, whatever its conditions of loading and whatever the upward or downward gradient of the road on which it is moving;

(b) for motor vehicles and their trailers and semi-trailers a parking brake capable of holding the vehicle stationary, whatever its condition of loading, and whatever the upward or downward gradient of the road;

2. Specific conditions concerning exhaust emissions

2.1. Motor vehicles equipped with positive-ignition (petrol) engines

(a) Where the exhaust emissions are not controlled by an advanced emission control system such as a three-way catalytic converter which is lambda-probe controlled:

1. visual inspection of the exhaust system in order to check that there is no leakage;

2. if appropriate, visual inspection of the emission control system in order to check that the required equipment has been fitted;

3. after a reasonable period of engine conditioning (taking account of the vehicle manufacturer's recommendations) the carbon monoxide (CO) content of the exhaust gases is measured when the engine is idling (no load).

The maximum permissible CO content in the exhaust gases must not exceed the following:

- for vehicles registered or put into service for the first time between the date from which Member States required the vehicles to comply with Directive 70/220/EEC(1) and 1 October 1986: CO must not exceed 4,5 % vol.,

- for vehicles registered or put into service for the first time after 1 October 1986: CO must not exceed 3,5 % vol.

(b) Where the exhaust emissions are controlled by an advanced emission control system such as a three-way catalytic converter which is lambda-probe controlled:

1. visual inspection of the exhaust system in order to check that there are no leakages and that all parts are complete;

2. visual inspection of the emission control system in order to check that the required equipment has been fitted;

3. determination of the efficiency of the vehicle's emission control system by measurement of the lambda value and of the CO content of the exhaust gases in accordance with section 4.

4. Exhaust pipe emissions - limit values

- measurement at engine idling speed:

The maximum permissible CO content in the exhaust gases must not exceed 0,5 % vol.,

- measurement at high idling speed (no load), engine speed to be at least 2000 min-1:

CO content: maximum 0,3 % vol.,

Lambda: 1 +- 0,03 or in accordance with the manufacturer's specifications.

2.2. Motor vehicles equipped with compression ignition (diesel) engines

Measurement of exhaust gas opacity with free acceleration (no load from idling up to cut-off speed). The level of concentration must not exceed(2) the following limit values of the coefficient of absorption:

- naturally aspirated diesel engines = 2,5 m-1,

- turbo-charged diesel engines = 3,0 m-1,

or equivalent values where use in made of equipment of a type different from that complying with these requirements.

Vehicles registered or put into service for the first time before 1 January 1980 are exempted from these requirements.

2.3. Test equipment

Vehicle emissions are tested using equipment designed to establish accurately whether the limit values prescribed or indicated by the manufacturer have been complied with.

(1) Council Directive 70/220/EEC of 20 March 1970 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to measures to be taken against air pollution by emissions from motor vehicles (OJ L 76, 6.4.1970, p. 1). Directive as last amended by Directive 98/77/EC of the Commission (OJ L 286, 23.10.1998, p. 34).

(2) Council Directive 72/306/EEC of 2 August 1972 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the measures to be taken against the emission of pollutants from diesel engines for use in vehicles (OJ L 190, 20.8.1972, p. 1). Directive as last amended by Commission Directive 97/20/EC (OJ L 125, 16.5.1997, p. 2).

STATEMENT OF THE COUNCIL'S REASONS

I. INTRODUCTION

1. On 20 May 1998, the Commission submitted to the European Parliament and the Council a proposal for a Directive on the roadside inspection of the roadworthiness of commercial vehicles circulating in the Community, based on Article 75 of the EC Treaty (which after amendment became Article 71 EC), paragraph 1 (c) and (d)(1).

2. The European Parliament delivered its opinion on 9 February 1999(2) and confirmed it as a first reading under the codecision procedure on 16 September 1999(3).

3. The Economic and Social Committee delivered its opinion on 9 September 1998(4).

Following the Council's request for consultation on 25 May 1999, the Committee of the Regions communicated its decision not to give an opinion by letter on 22 July 1999.

4. In the light of the European Parliament's opinion, the Commission forwarded an amended proposal(5) to the Council on 15 October 1999.

5. On 2 December 1999, the Council adopted its Common Position in accordance with Article 251 of the EC Treaty.

II. PURPOSE

The aim of the Commission proposal is to improve the safety and ecological quality of heavy commercial vehicles used for the carriage of passengers and goods within the Member States and to introduce uniform assessment of the quality of maintenance of such vehicles, discouraging transporters from gaining a competitive advantage by operating inadequately maintained vehicles.

Directive 96/96/EC(6) provides for heavy commercial vehicles to undergo compulsory annual roadworthiness tests.

The proposal for a Directive sets out to supplement the rules introduced by Directive 96/96/EC. It provides for Member States to introduce unexpected roadside inspections so as to check, throughout the year, the level of maintenance of a representative proportion of the commercial vehicle fleet on the road. The scope of the proposal is broader than that of Directive 96/96/EC, since it covers all commercial vehicles in circulation on the roads of a Member State, including those from third countries. The Commission feels that the need to ensure minimum safety and environmental protection standards justifies extending checks to vehicles from third countries.

The proposed roadside checking system consists of inspection of the most visible aspects of the safety and environmental protection systems and equipment fitted to vehicles so as to detect the most obvious defects.

Checks may be carried out at the roadside, at ports, at other places where vehicles are parked, or on operators' premises.

The proposal for a Directive follows on from the European "Auto-oil I" programme, which incorporated the approach set out in Article 4 of Directive 94/12/EC(7) and gave an objective assessment of all the most profitable measures in the fields of vehicle technology, fuel quality, monitoring and maintenance, as well as non-technical measures, in order to reduce emissions by road transport.

According to that approach, the Commission should have strengthened the provisions introduced by Directive 96/96/EC, but felt that at this stage it was more effective, from the point of view of environmental protection, to introduce roadside inspections to ensure the application of the aforementioned Directive throughout the year.

III. ANALYSIS OF THE COMMON POSITION

The draft Directive does not depart substantially from the Commission proposal. However, it introduces certain changes, the following being the main ones:

1. limiting the scope of the Directive to inspections on the public highway (Article 2(b)), except in the case of more elaborate inspection justified on safety grounds (Article 5(2));

2. abandoning the progressive, three-stage approach for roadworthiness inspection and replacing it with a simpler, not necessarily progressive, approach (Article 4).

The examiner carries out the roadworthiness inspection by performing one or two or all of the following inspections:

(a) visual inspection of the maintenance condition of the stationary commercial vehicle;

(b) inspection of the documents certifying the vehicle's conformity to the technical inspection and, if the driver produces one, of a recent roadworthiness inspection report;

(c) an inspection aiming to detect maintenance defects covering one, some or all of the inspection items enumerated in the list in Annex I, point 10. These items include braking systems and exhaust emissions, the inspection methods for which are specified in Annex II.

It should be noted that the introductory part of Annex II has been deleted, since the specific provisions on further inspection on the road apply only to braking and emissions.

If the examiner carries out the inspection described in point (c), he must take into account the latest and thus most recent documents mentioned in point (b). He may also take into account any other safety certificate, issued by an approved body, that the driver may produce;

3. the type of inspection applicable to vehicles subjected to further inspection (Article 5(2)).

The amended Commission proposal lays down that the examiner may subject the commercial vehicle to a roadworthiness inspection at an approved testing centre in accordance with Article 2 of Directive 96/96/EC, if he considers that the deficiency in the maintenance of the commercial vehicle justifies further examination.

The Council Common Position lays down that the examiner may subject the vehicle to a more elaborate inspection at a testing centre in the vicinity, designated by the Member State, in accordance with Article 2 of Directive 96/96/EC, if he considers that deficiencies in the maintenance of the vehicle may represent a safety risk such that, as regards the brakes in particular, further examination is justified;

4. the possibility for the driver to be exempt from a roadside inspection of one the items listed in the draft Directive if he provides proof that a roadworthiness test or roadside inspection has already been carried out in the course of the previous two months (Article 4(3));

5. the choice of the committee procedure, that is, the regulatory procedure rather than the consultative procedure (Article 9)(8);

6. the deletion of Article 9 of the amended Commission proposal, which was intended to introduce a system of penalties;

7. introduction of a standard roadworthiness inspection report based on Annex I to the Commission proposal (Annex I).

All the amendments to the proposal envisaged by the Council Common Position have been accepted by the Commission.

IV. EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AMENDMENTS

1. European Parliament amendments adopted by the Commission

The Commission has adopted 11 of the 17 amendments submitted by the European Parliament, 10 exactly as they stand (amendments 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 17) and one in principle (amendment 15).

2. European Parliament amendments accepted by the Council and adopted by the Commission

The Council has accepted, wholly or in part or in principle, nine of the 11 amendments adopted by the Commission:

- in recital 10 of the Common Position, amendment 1 (this amendment is also reflected in Article 3(2)),

- in Annex I, the part of amendment 3 concerning standardisation of documents relating to roadside inspections (standardised report model).

The aim of this amendment is to add to Article 3(2) of the proposal (Article 4(1)(b) of the Common Position) a provision requiring the Member States to standardise the documents certifying the conformity of the vehicle to the technical regulations, with a view to avoiding any linguistic problems in roadside inspections.

Regarding the standardisation of documents relating to roadside inspections, the Council has laid down that Annex I to the Common Position take the form of a common model for roadside inspections: the data required appear at the same point in the report regardless of the language used.

However, regarding the standardisation of the documents certifying that the commercial vehicle has passed an obligatory roadworthiness inspection, the Council notes that standardisation proceedings are under way in the framework of the UN/ECE and that the Commission intends to submit a proposal for an amendment to Directive 96/96/EC adopting the results of these proceedings. A large proportion of the documents relating to commercial vehicles circulating on Community territory will thereby be standardised, whether these vehicles are registered in third countries or in the Community,

- in Article 1(3), amendment 4,

- in Article 6, amendment 6,

- in Article 4(3), amendment 7,

- in Article 3(2), first part of amendment 9 (brevity of immobilisation of the vehicle),

- in Article 7(1), amendment 10;

- in Article 7(2), amendment 11;

- in Annex I, point 10(1), amendment 15.

It is to be noted that amendment 17, the aim of which is to adopt amendment 15 to Annex II, introductory part (among the checks cited by way of example), has become inapplicable. This is because the introductory part of Annex II does not appear in the Common Position (see point III(2)(c)).

3. Amendments of the European Parliament not accepted by the Council

(a) Not adopted by the Commission

The Council has not accepted amendments 2, 12 and 13:

- amendment 2 aims to add to Article 3(1) of the amended Commission proposal (Article 4(1) of the Common Position) a provision laying down that the duration and content of the training of the examiner carrying out the roadside inspection are determined by the committee procedure. The Council considered that it was not necessary to require the examiner to have special training for the roadside inspection of the vehicles and that the duration of this training was therefore not a matter falling within the scope of the Common Position. In addition, Directive 96/96/EC does not provide for harmonisation in this matter. Furthermore, the committee procedure provided for in Article 9 is used solely for the adaptation of Annex I or for the adaptation to technical progress of the technical standards of Annex II,

- amendment 12 aims to add to Article 9 of the amended proposal, which requires Member States to establish a system of penalties, a provision to prevent the penalties decided by Member States from exhibiting excessive disparities.

The Council has not adopted this Article because it considers that it is not necessary for this Directive to include special provisions relating to the penalties applicable in the event of violation of the Directive,

- amendment 13, first and third parts, aims to put back by six months the dates of transposition and of application of the Directive laid down in Article 10(1) of the amended proposal, since they have already passed,

amendment 13, second part, makes the entry into effect of the Directive subject to the adoption by the Member States, after consultation with the Commission, of the provisions required in terms of training of examiners, the availability of the equipment and human resources needed for the performance of the inspections and the achievement of uniformity of penalties.

As regards amendment 13, first and third parts, the Council felt it preferable to lay down a single date in Article 11(1) of the Common Position, namely that on which the Directive becomes applicable and to set that date in relation to the date the Directive comes into force.

As regards amendment 13, second part, the Council:

- asserted that it is not possible to lay down in one Article that the Directive comes into force on a specific date and in another Article that the Directive can come into force only as from the point when the Member States have taken certain measures.

Article 11 of the amended proposal, which has not been amended, and Article 12 of the Common Position do in fact specify a precise date of entry into force of the Directive, defined in relation to the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

- felt that it was not acceptable to make the entry into force of the Directive subject to a degree of harmonisation of the training of examiners, penalties systems and the technical and human resources necessary for the inspections. In accordance with the principle of subsidiarity, the Member States are free to take or not to take measures in these areas and to do so in a harmonised form or otherwise.

The Council did not accept amendments 8 and 16.

- The aim of the first part of amendment 8 is to add a provision to Article 5(2) allowing the examiner to decide to immobilise the vehicle with a view to it being towed immediately to an approved testing centre for repair if he considers that the extent of the maintenance defects of the vehicle creates a serious risk to traffic.

The Council feels that, if it becomes clear that the vehicle constitutes a serious risk, the appropriate measure is to suspend use of the vehicle and that repair is the responsibility of the owner of the vehicle, who must remain free to decide where to have it repaired.

The second part of amendment 8 concerns the case in which the extent of the defects is deemed great enough to make further inspection necessary. In this case, the vehicle may be subjected to a roadworthiness inspection at an approved testing centre and a copy of the certificate drawn up by the testing centre is addressed to the inspection service that noted the defects.

The Council considers it preferable to lay down that the vehicle be subjected only to a more elaborate inspection and not to the set of tests required for a roadworthiness inspection within the meaning of Directive 96/96/EC. The Council also considers that this more elaborate inspection should be performed at a centre in the vicinity, to keep the costs and delays caused to drivers and undertakings to a minimum, in accordance with Article 3(2).

As regards the sending of a copy of the certificate to the inspection service, a provision which does not appear in the amended proposal, the Council considers it preferable to leave Member States free to decide how the inspection service is to be informed,

- the aim of amendment 16 is to cover, in Annex I, point 16, of the amended proposal (Annex I, point 11, of the Common Position) the two cases which are the subject of amendment 8. Amendment 16 has therefore not been accepted by the Council either,

in addition, the Council has reduced the number of cases appearing in Annex I, point 11, to one. Taking into account the information the examiner has to provide in accordance with point 10 of Annex I, the Council considers it sufficient to prescribe in point 11, as the outcome of the inspection, only the suspension of use of vehicles exhibiting serious defects.

The Council has not accepted amendment 14.

The aim of this amendment is to add to Annex I, point 6, a new category of vehicles subject to roadside inspection, namely vehicles for animal transportation. This is because the European Parliament considered that this category of vehicles should be the object of a separate inspection, given the need to take account of additional characteristics such as the temperature in the compartment used for transportation and the correct functioning of loading ramps.

The Council considered, following the amended Commission proposal, that the Directive should provide for roadside inspections only for the categories of vehicles covered in Directive 96/96/EC, without taking into account the use of the vehicle. Verification of compliance with the technical regulations applicable to the transporting of animals does not fall within the scope of the present Directive, which is a special Directive belonging within the framework of Directive 96/96/EC, of which it takes up, to the letter or in spirit, the test items and the rules for performing the tests prescribed.

(b) Adopted by the Commission

The Council did not accept amendment 5, the purpose of which is to clarify in Article 4(1) of the amended proposal (Article 3(1) of the Common Position) that it is by common agreement and after consulting the Commission that Member States are to set up the unannounced roadside inspections required by the Directive. The Council based its view on the bureaucratic burden that would be created by acceptance of this amendment and the difficulties that the planning of these inspections might create even at national level.

The Council considers it sufficient that Member States, pursuant to Article 6, communicate to the Commission, and that the Commission communicate to the European Parliament, the data on inspections performed and that, pursuant to Article 7, the Member States provide each other with assistance in applying the Directive.

The Council did not accept the second part of amendment 9, laying down that the vehicle immobilisation periods be subject to statistical monitoring.

It is noted that the first part of this amendment is covered by Article 3(2) of the Common Position (see point IV(2)).

The Council considered that to set up such statistical monitoring would impose an excessive administrative burden.

(1) OJ C 190, 18.6.1998, p. 10.

(2) OJ C 150, 28.5.1999, p. 27.

(3) Not yet published in the Official Journal.

(4) OJ C 407, 28.12.1998, p. 112.

(5) Not yet published in the Official Journal.

(6) Council Directive 96/96/EC of 20 December 1996 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to roadworthiness tests for motor vehicles and their trailers (OJ L 46, 17.2.1997, p. 1). Decision last amended by Commission Directive 1999/52/EC (OJ L 142, 5.6.1999, p. 26).

(7) Directive 94/12/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 March 1994 relating to measures to be taken against air pollution by emissions from motor vehicles and amending Directive 70/220/EEC (OJ L 100, 19.4.1994, p. 42).

(8) Council Decision 1999/468//EC of 28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exercise of implementing powers conferred on the Commission (OJ L 184, 17.7.1999, p. 23).