WRITTEN QUESTION E-1781/03 by Claude Moraes (PSE) to the Commission. The EQUAL funding programme post-enlargement.
Date: 2003-05-28
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU financing, enlargement of the Union, financing plan, information

C 78 E/46

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

27.3.2004

The use of silencers is not allowed in every Member State. As a result, new types of silencers do not come
onto the internal market, and product development is also made more difficult.

Does the Commission consider that any of the factors involved in this matter are likewise hampering the
operation of the internal market? Secondly, does it think that any Community action might be conducive
to environmental noise abatement at shooting ranges? Is there any way in which it could encourage
Member States to remove legislative obstacles to the use of silencers, citing the favourable experiences in
the Nordic countries?

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(23 July 2003)

The use of silencers is not subject to harmonisation at Community level. This question therefore falls
directly within the scope of Articles 28 to 30 of the EC Treaty.

In this context, the Member States may adopt measures aimed at restricting the use and movement of
certain products, provided that these are justified on grounds such as public order or safety. The question
which arises therefore is to know whether the restrictions in some Member States, as mentioned by the
Honourable Member, are covered by such grounds. As the Commission has no knowledge of the nature,
scale and scope of the restrictions, it can only ask that the Honourable Member provide further details on
the restrictions he mentions, and particularly on their justification.

(2004/C 78 E/0044)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1781/03

by Claude Moraes (PSE) to the Commission

(28 May 2003)

Subject: The EQUAL funding programme post-enlargement

Can the Commission please provide information or analysis on how the EQUAL funding programme will
be affected by the enlargement of the EU in 2004?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(14 July 2003)

The table below gives the breakdown of the financial envelope for the Accession Countries for EQUAL by
country, and has been prepared in full compliance with the decisions of the European Council at
Copenhagen (12 and 13 December 2002).

The figures for each year have been indexed to the prices of the year in question, and the total figures for
the period 2004-2006 are shown below:

(cid:1) Cyprus: EUR 1 808 504;

(cid:1) Czech Republic: EUR 32 095 830;

(cid:1) Estonia: EUR 4 067 447;

(cid:1) Hungary: EUR 30 287 325;

(cid:1) Latvia: EUR 8 024 512;

(cid:1) Lithuania: EUR 11 864 504;

(cid:1) Malta: EUR 1 240 962;

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Official Journal of the European Union

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(cid:1) Poland: EUR 133 916 932;

(cid:1) Slovakia: EUR 22 262 812;

(cid:1) Slovenia: EUR 6 441 243.

The financial envelopes of the existing Member States will remain unchanged. The total budget available
for EQUAL will, therefore, increase by EUR 252 010 071 as a result of enlargement.

(2004/C 78 E/0045)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1817/03

by Christopher Huhne (ELDR) to the Commission

(2 June 2003)

Subject: Air pollution

Will the Commission state the typical air pollution resulting from the emissions of a passenger vehicle,
light van and goods lorry in each case while idling in a traffic queue and while running at typical cruising
speeds?

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(4 August 2003)

The same amount of emissions from a vehicle can cause rather different levels of air pollution depending
e.g. on the weather (wind speeds, presence of an inversion layer etc), on the insolation (ozone formation)
and on the topography (e.g. street canyons). This is why the Auto-Oil programme used a simulation
programme, Tremove, in order to model the impacts of pollutant emissions in a number of different
European cities. The proposals for emission limit values for motor vehicles that the Commission then
produced were based on these calculations. It is thus not possible to define ‘typical’ levels of air pollution
resulting from emissions.

The levels of emissions of air pollutants are much more readily understood than the pollution they cause,
because they can be directly measured. They are thus used in the type approval procedure for motor
vehicles. However, it is difficult to identify ‘typical’ cruising speeds, which is why the legislation for light-
duty vehicles (cars and vans) makes reference to a drive cycle that is intended to simulate real-world
driving. The emission limit values laid down in Directive 1998/69/EC (1) (in terms of grams per kilometre)
are, therefore, a good indication of the air pollution produced by light-duty vehicles.

The situation is somewhat more complex for heavy-duty vehicles where the emissions are being measured
not per kilometre driven but per unit of work done by the engine (grams per kilowatt-hour). The
corresponding emission limit values are laid down in Directive 1999/96/EC (2). The emissions on a per-
kilometre basis would differ markedly between different types of lorries, e.g. because the same kind of
engines are used for very different types of heavy-duty vehicle, and because the load can vary significantly.
A simulation model such as Tremove would be required to obtain values on a per-kilometre basis.

The idling state of the engine is part of the drive cycle used for the type-approval of passenger cars. The
emissions while idling are thus implicitly regulated by Community type-approval legislation. However, it
should be pointed out that the emissions while idling in a traffic queue are strongly influenced by the
degree of congestion encountered (stop-and-go traffic) and can thus not be answered in a general manner.
The Commission does not have detailed information on this topic at present.

There are many transport models that use emission factors for establishing the quantity of emissions
emitted by motor vehicles at different constant road speeds and these emission factors are always in the
process of update as new vehicles meeting more stringent emission standards enter the market and the
data on which the emission factors are based is improved.