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"
Date: 2001-10-18
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: air quality, diesel fuel, environmental protection, motor fuel, motor vehicle, motor vehicle industry

8.2.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 36/115

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 Ferna´ndez.

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

The amendment of Directive 98/70/EC has a dual
1.1.
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 necess-
ary 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.

The draft directive goes further than these limits, which
1.3.
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.

agricultural tractors — which had been excluded from its
scope when the earlier legislation referring to them had been
suspended — setting a limit of 2 000 ppm when the draft
directive comes into force, to be reduced to 1 000 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 Com-
mission is also to be notified annually by the Member States
of the marketed volumes of such fuels.

Lastly, the Commission will review its specifications by
1.7.
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

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 design-
ed 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

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 6 000 ppm to the present 350 and is set to fall to
50 ppm within the next ten years.

C 36/116

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

8.2.2002

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.

In order to prevent confusion, the Committee wishes
2.4.
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

Brussels, 18 October 2001.

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 avail-
ability 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.

The Committee would have preferred that national,
2.6.
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.

Lastly, the Committee believes that after a precaution-
2.7.
ary 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.

The President

of the Economic and Social Committee

Göke FRERICHS