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 adoption of an amended proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on labelling of tyres with respect to fuel efficiency and other essential parameters
Date: 2009-11-23
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: consumer information, energy consumption, energy saving, labelling, motor fuel, pneumatic tyre

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COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 23.11.2009 
COM(2009)642 final 

2008/0221 (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 adoption of an amended proposal for a 
Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on labelling of tyres with 
respect to fuel efficiency and other essential parameters 

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2008/0221 (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 adoption of an amended proposal for a 
Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on labelling of tyres with 
respect to fuel efficiency and other essential parameters 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the EP and the Council 
(COM(2008) 779 final – 2008/0221/COD): 

13 November 2008 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee: 

24 March 2009 

Date of the opinion of the European Parliament, first reading: 

22 April 2009 

Date of transmission of the amended proposal 

1 July 2009 

(COM(2009)348): 

Date of adoption of the common position (unanimously): 

20 November 2009 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE COMMISSION PROPOSAL 

The objective of this proposal is to promote the market transformation towards fuel-efficient 
tyres,  together  with  safer  and  quieter  tyres.  This  initiative  is  in  line  with  the  revised 
Commission strategy on CO2 emissions from passenger cars and light commercial vehicles1 
(which  sets  CO2  target  to  be  achieved  through  reductions  of  car  emissions,  including  the 
promotion of fuel efficient tyres).  

Directed at the demand side, the proposal on tyre labelling will complement the type-approval 
legislation on tyres which addresses the supply side by means of minimum requirements. The 
minimum  requirements  governing  rolling  resistance,  wet  grip  and  external  rolling  noise 
scheduled to take effect by 1 November 2012 in Regulation (EC) No 661/20092 on the general 
safety  of  motor  vehicles  will  guarantee  a  standard  level  of  tyre  quality,  while  further 
improvements beyond these levels will be driven by the tyre labelling scheme.  

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COM(2007) 19 
OJ L 200, 31.7.2009, p. 1–24  

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3. 

COMMENTS ON THE COMMON POSITION 

3.1. 

General comments on the Common Position 

The text of the negotiated Common Position is, in substance and to a large extent, in line with 
the Commission's proposal and therefore can be supported. 

3.2. 

Agreement at Common Position stage 

The negotiated Common Position is the result of inter-institutional negotiations as agreed at 
the final trialogue of 1 October 2009. 

On  14  October  2009  the  chairman  of  the  ITRE  Committee,  Mr  Herbert  Reul,  confirmed 
Parliament's  agreement  to  the  text  agreed  by  Coreper  on  7  October  2009  and  to  the 
Commission's Statement (see below). The negotiated Common position was formally adopted 
at the Agriculture and Fisheries Council on 20 November 2009. 

The main subjects of negotiation on which an agreement was reached are as follows (in order 
of appearance in the proposal): 

•  Format  of  the  proposal:  The  proposal  is  changed  from  a  Directive  into  a  Regulation  on 

request of Parliament. 

•  Advertising  requirements  (article  3  (4)  and  recital  17):  The  definition  of  technical 
promotional  literature  is  reworded  in  order  to  make  clear  that  it  does  not  include  media 
advertising in general. 

•  Display of the label (article 4): Flexibility is introduced with regards to the display of the 
label. While Commission proposed that the label is mandatorily displayed at the point of 
sale by means of a sticker on each tyre, the negotiated amendment of Council/Parliament 
foresees  that  the  label  may  be  either  displayed  by  means  of  a  sticker  on  each  tyre  as 
proposed by the Commission or distributed in one printed copy per each batch of one or 
more identical  tyres  delivered  at  the point of sale; in that case it is requested in article 5 
that the distributors show the printed label to the end-users before the sale of the tyre(s) at 
the point of sale. 

•  Responsibilities  of  vehicle  suppliers  (article  6):  The  general  obligation  for  vehicle 
producers  to  display  the  classification  of  tyres  fitted  on  new  vehicles  is  removed.  The 
information  requirement,  under  the  agreement,  will  apply  only  to  those  tyres  offered  as 
option to end-users. 

•  Market surveillance (article 12): A reference to Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 on market 
surveillance is introduced in article 12 as suggested in the Commission amended proposal 
in response to the Parliament's request for reinforced market surveillance rules. 

•  Review  clause  (article  14):  The  review  clause  is  shortened  from  5  years  in  the  original 
proposal  to  40  months  in  order  to  assess  the  effectiveness  and  visibility  of  the  labelling 
scheme, in particular with regards to the amended articles 4 and 5. 

•  Transitional provision (article 15): EP and Council agreed to exempt tyres produced before 

July 2012 from the labelling requirements.  

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•  Promotion of low noise tyres (annex II): A classification of external rolling noise is added 
on  the  label  in  order  to  facilitate  easy  recognition  of  low  noise  tyres,  in  addition  to  the 
display of the external rolling noise measured value in decibels. 

•  Website on tyre labelling information and  harmonised fuel saving calculator: In order to 
facilitate  agreement  between  the  institutions,  the  Commission  agreed  to  make  the 
following  statement  at  the  Parliament's  plenary  session  immediately  before  the  final 
adoption of the proposal for a Regulation:  

"The Commission supports the use of Community instruments such as the Intelligent 
Energy-Europe  Programme  to  contribute  to  initiatives  that  raise  end-users’ 
awareness of the benefits of tyre labelling. 

By  June  2012,  the  Commission  will  make  available,  in  particular  to  consumer 
organisations  and  tyre  manufacturers  on  its  ec.europa  website,  information 
explaining  each  of  the  components  of  the  tyre  label  and  a  harmonised  fuel  savings 
calculator."  

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Common Position meets the aims of the Commission's initial proposal. The Commission 
therefore supports the text. 

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