REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the European Union (Reporting year 2014 and 2015)
Date: 2017-02-01
Institutions: Directorate-General for Climate Action, European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, air quality, diesel fuel, environmental standard, marketing standard, petrol, product quality, road transport, sampling

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   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 1.2.2017  COM(2017) 49 final   REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the European Union  (Reporting year 2014 and 2015)  
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the European Union 
(Reporting years 2014 and 2015) 

1. 

INTRODUCTION 

Continuous  compliance  of  petrol  and  diesel  fuel  used  for  road  transport  with  EU  quality 
requirements is of utmost importance for the delivery of substantial health and environmental 
benefits.  

This  report is  based  on the reports  submitted by Member States,  pursuant  to Article 8(3) of 
Directive  98/70/EC1  (so-called  Fuel  Quality  Directive),  on  the  quality  of  petrol  and  diesel 
used for road transport in the EU for the year 2014. 

The  European  Environment  Agency  (EEA)  has  carried  out  a  quality  assurance  and  quality 
process  of  the  data  submitted  by  Member  States  leading  to  improvements  of  the  data.  The 
compilation  and  analysis  of  the  data  reported  by  Member  States  is  presented  in  the  EEA 
Technical  report  No  26/2015  on  ‘EU  Fuel  quality  monitoring  –  2014’  and  the  Technical 
report No 36/2016 on ‘EU Fuel quality monitoring – 2015’2. 

2. 

OVERVIEW OF THE 2014 FUEL QUALITY DATA IN THE EU 

The monitoring of fuel quality in 2014 and 2015 continued to show that there were very few 
deviations  from  the  specifications  for  petrol  and  diesel  laid  down  in  the  Fuel  Quality 
Directive.  Furthermore  it  shows  that  all  Member  States  apply  the  fuel  specifications  that 
require road fuels to contain less than 10 ppm of sulphur. 

One of the key points for monitoring the compliance with the fuel quality requirements is the 
sampling of fuels. Following the findings of the report for 2013 data3 and subsequent bilateral 
contacts  between  the  Commission  and  Member  States,  the  data  reported  by  Member  States 
shows  in  2014  an  improvement  in  the  way  Member  States  meet  their  reporting  and 
monitoring obligations through  enhanced fuel quality monitoring systems leading to a  more 
complete and robust sampling of fuels. 

In  2014,  all  Member  States  provided  the  required  minimum  information  regarding  fuel 
compliance. There was therefore no need for the Commission to launch any new investigation 
in this area. 

In 2015, the large majority of the Member States provided the required minimum information 
regarding  fuel  compliance.  The  Commission  has  requested  further  information  from  those 
Member States which didn't report the necessary information regarding fuel compliance.  

Non-compliance  of  fuel  put  on  the  market  in  both  years  is  reported  to  be  rare.  When  this 
happens Member States generally indicate taking action to remove non-compliant fuel from 
sale. Furthermore, there is no evidence of any negative repercussions on vehicle emissions or 
engine functioning due to these instances of non-compliance. 

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3  

O.J. L 350 of 28.12.1998, p. 58 
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eu-fuel-quality-monitoring-2014 and 
http://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/eu-fuel-quality-monitoring-2015  
http://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/transport/fuel/docs/com_2015_70_en.pdf  

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