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 2017)
Date: 2019-10-31
Institutions: Directorate-General for Climate Action, European Commission
Subjects: EU Member State, air quality, diesel fuel, environmental standard, marketing standard, petrol, quality standard, road transport, sampling

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  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 31.10.2019  COM(2019) 561 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 2017)  
 
 
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 2017) 

INTRODUCTION 

1. 
Pursuant to Article 7a of Directive 98/70/EC1 relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels 
(henceforth the "Fuel Quality Directive") and Article 5 of Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 
laying down calculation methods and reporting requirements pursuant to Directive 98/70/EC2, 
Member States are required to report annually on the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of fuels 
and energy supplied in their territories.   This reporting obligation  applies for the first  time 
for the reporting year 2017, following the application and transposition of Council Directive 
(EU) 2015/652. 

Furthermore,  pusuant  to  Article  8(3)  of  Directive  98/70/EC  Member  States  are  required  to 
report on national fuel quality data for the preceding calendar year..  

This annual report summarises the information provided by Member States in relation to the 
above-mentioned reporting requirements. It is based on the data submitted by Member States 
to the European Environment Agency (EEA) for the year 2017.  

2. 

VOLUMES  AND  LIFE  CYCLE  GREENHOUSE  GAS  INTENSITY  OF  FUEL  AND  ENERGY 
TYPES 

Article  7a  of  the  Fuel  Quality  Directive,  in  conjunction  with  the  Council  Directive  (EU) 
2015/652, sets out reporting requirements concerning the following: 

 

 

 

the total  volume of each type of fuel  or  energy  supplied for  road transport and non-
road  mobile  machinery  (including  inland  waterway  vessels  when  not  at  sea), 
agricultural and forestry tractors, and recreational craft when not at sea; 

the  life  cycle  GHG  emissions  per  unit  of  energy,  including  the  provisional  mean 
values of the estimated indirect land use change (ILUC) emissions from biofuels3.  
the  feedstock  and  the  biofuel  production  pathway  used  for  each  of  the  biofuels 
supplied on the territories of Member States. 

The Fuel Quality Directive obliges Member States to require fuel suppliers to reduce the life 
cycle GHG intensity of transport fuels, i.e. the life cycle GHG emissions per unit of energy 
from fuel and energy supplied, by a minimum of 6 % by 31 December 2020 compared with 
the fuel baseline standard for 2010 of  94,1 gCO2eq/MJ4. ILUC GHG emissions are not taken 
into account in assessing compliance with the minimum 6% reduction target. 

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Directive 98/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to the quality of petrol and 
diesel fuels and amending Council Directive 93/12/EEC, OJ L 350 of 28.12.1998. 
Council  Directive  (EU)  2015/652  of  20  April  2015  laying  down  calculation  methods  and  reporting 
requirements pursuant to Directive 98/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to 
the quality of petrol and diesel fuels, OJ L 107 of 25.4.2015. 
Directive (EU) 2015/1513 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 September 2015 
amending Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels and amending Directive 
2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, OJ L239 of 15.9.2015. 
Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 of 20 April 2015 laying down calculation methods and reporting 
requirements pursuant to Directive 98/70/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council relating to 
the quality of petrol and diesel fuels, OJ L 107 of 25.4.2015. 

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Given  that  2017  is  the  first  reporting  year,  and  the  transposition  of  Council  Directive  (EU) 
2015/652 was delayed in many Member States, this first report on the volumes and life cycle 
greenhouse gas intensity of fuel and energy types is not yet complete. A total of 22 Member 
States as well as Iceland and Norway, provided corresponding data in the appropriate format. 
Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain submitted reports on the quality of 
the fuels placed on the market by fuel suppliers but not on their greenhouse gas intensity5.  

2.1  Greenhouse gas emissions and distance to 2020 target 
According to the data provided, the average GHG intensity of the fuels and energy supplied in 
the  22  reporting  Member  States  in  2017  was  3.4  %  lower  than  the  2010  baseline.  This 
corresponds to a saving of 29 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) in the year 2017.  
To  ensure  the  delivery  of  the  minimum  6 %  reduction  target  by  2020,  the  Fuel  Quality 
Directive  specifies  that  Member  States  may  require  fuel  suppliers  to  comply  with  an 
intermediate reduction target of 4 % for the year 2017.  

Using  this  as  a  reference  to  assess  the  progress  achieved  indicates  that,  in  2017,  EU  fuel 
suppliers  in  the  22  reporting  Member  States  were  on  average  behind  their  objective  of 
reducing the GHG intensity of transport fuels by 6 % by 2020, compared with 2010 (Figure 
1).  It  is  to  be  noted  that  in  2017  no  upstream  emission  reductions  (UER)6  were  reported. 
These are expected to contribute to the reduction target in the year 2020 for which they have 
to be reported. 

The progress achieved by fuel suppliers varies  greatly across Member States. In 5 of the 22 
reporting Member States, reductions were equal to or greater than 4 %, with Sweden being the 
only  Member  State  having  already  exceeded  the  6 %  reduction  target  for  2020.  Therefore, 
almost all Member States need to take swiftly further action to ensure that the 2020 target is 
met. 
Taking  ILUC  emissions  into  account7,  the  average  GHG  intensity  of  the  fuels  consumed  in 
2017 was 2.3 % lower than in 2010. This corresponds to a saving of slightly less than 20 Mt 
CO2eq in the year 2017. ILUC  emissions are not  taken into account in assessing compliance 
with the minimum 6% reduction target. 

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The European Commission is following up on the correct and complete transposition of Council 
Directive (EU) 2015/652 to ensure its correct implementation. 
‘upstream emissions’ means all greenhouse gas emissions occurring prior to the raw material entering a 
refinery or a processing plant where the fuel is produced. 
For  this  calculation,  the  provisional  estimated  indirect  land-use  change  emissions  from  biofuels  were 
taken into account as listed in Annex V of the Fuel Quality Directive. 

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Source: EEA  

Figure 1: Reductions in GHG intensity of fuels achieved by EU fuel suppliers in the 22 
reporting Member States, 2010-2017 

Fuel supply 

2.2 
This section provides the data submitted for the first time by 22 reporting Member States on 
all fossil fuels, biofuels and fuels of non-biological origin within the scope of the Fuel Quality 
Directive for road transport and non-road mobile machinery. 

Total fuel supply reported was 8 976 petajoules (PJ), of which 95.5 % was from fossil fuels, 
and  4.5 %  was  from  biofuels.  No  renewable  fuels  of  non-biological  origin  were  reported  in 
2017. 

The fossil fuel supply in 2017 was dominated by diesel (55.8 %; 5 007 PJ), followed by petrol 
(27.6 %; 2 474 PJ) and gas oil (14.8 %; 1 324 PJ). Liquefied petroleum gas and compressed 
natural gas had a total share of 1.8 % (167 PJ). 

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Source: EEA  

Figure  2:  Fossil  fuel  energy  supply  shares  per  fuel  type  in  2017  in  the  22  reporting 
Member States 

Biofuel consumption 

2.3 
The  biofuels  consumption  in  the  22  reporting  Member  States  was  dominated  by  biodiesel 
(fatty acid methyl ester, FAME) (62.3 %; 267 PJ), followed by bioethanol (17.5 %; 75 PJ) and 
hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO; 16.6 %; 71 PJ). Bio-ethyl tert-butyl ether (bio-ETBE) and 
biogas  account  for almost  3 % (12 PJ). All  other biofuels  represented  a  much smaller share 
(about  1 %).  Detailed  information  for  all  biofuels  and  pathways  can  be  found  in  the  EEA 
Technical  report  on  ‘Quality  and  greenhouse  gas  intensities  of  transport  fuels  in  the  EU  in 
2017’. 

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Note: ETBE: ethyl tert-butyl ether; MTBE: methyl tert-butyl ether; TAEE: tert-amyl ethyl ether. 

Figure  3:  Biofuel  energy  supply  shares  per  fuel  type  in  2017  in  22  reporting  Member 
States 

Electricity consumption 

2.4 
Only  seven  Member  States  reported  the  electricity  consumed  by  electric  vehicles  and 
motorcycles  (1.2  PJ  in  total).  As  this  reporting  by  fuel  suppliers  is  voluntary,  the  reported 
quantity of electricity was below the actually consumed quantity in 2017. 

3. 

OVERVIEW OF THE 2017 FUEL QUALITY DATA IN THE EU 

According to Article 8 of the Fuel Quality Directive, all Member States, as well as Iceland, 
submitted reports on national fuel quality data for the year 2017.  

This  section  provides  the  data  for  petrol  and  diesel  sales,  and  the  bio-components  included 
therein,  for  road  transport  reported  by  all  EU  Member  States.  It  excludes  other  fossil  fuels, 
other  biofuels  and  fuels  of  non-biological  origin,  as  well  as  fuels  used  for  non-road  mobile 
machinery.  

3.1 

Petrol and diesel and biocomponent content  

Diesel continues to dominate fuel sales in the EU: 72.3 % (270 668 million litres) of fuel sold 
in  2017  was  diesel  and  27.7 %  was  petrol  (103 766 million litres).  Petrol  sales  in  2017 
increased  by  2.9 %  compared  with  2016,  whereas  diesel  sales  increased  by  5.2 %.  Overall, 
fuel  sales  of  petrol  and  diesel  increased  by  4.6%  compared  with  2016.  This  is  the  result  of 
increased transport demand that outweighed efficiency gains in the vehicle fleet.  

The share of diesel as compared with petrol sales has increased over the years, from 55.6 % of 
total  sales  in  2001  to  72.3 %  in  2017.  This  reflects  to  a  large  degree  the  increasing 
dieselisation of Europe’s vehicle fleet during that period. While sales of diesel fuel increased 

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by almost 9 % between 2007 and 2017, sales of petrol fuels decreased by 9 % during the same 
10-year period. 

Diesel  fuel  consumption  is  significant  in  most  EU  Member  States,  representing  more  than 
60 %  of  total  fuel  sales  in  23  Member  States  (all  except  Cyprus,  Greece,  Malta  and  the 
Netherlands; Romania did not submit a complete report for 2017). 

The  majority  of  petrol  sales  in  2017  comprised  fuels  with  a  petrol  grade  research  octane 
number (RON) of 95, which accounted for 85.7 % of the total petrol fuel sales; 8.3 % of sales 
were  95 ≤ RON < 98;  and  5.8 %  were  RON ≥ 98.  There  was  an  insignificant  proportion  of 
RON = 91 sales. 

All  diesel  sold  in  the  EU  is  marketed  as  containing  biodiesel,  whereas  87.6 %  of  petrol  is 
marketed  as  containing  bioethanol.  In  2017,  71.9 %  of  petrol  fuel  sold  in  the  EU  had  up  to 
5 % ethanol content by volume, and 15.7 % had up to 10 % ethanol content. Of the diesel fuel 
sold, 83.8 % contained up to 7 % FAME and 16.2 % contained more. 

3.2 

Compliance of sold fuels with quality limits 

Overall, fuel quality in the EU is high. Bulgaria, Malta and Sweden verified and reported full 
compliance for both petrol and diesel fuels, while nine Member States verified and reported 
full compliance for petrol (Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, 
Slovenia and Sweden) and seven for diesel (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland, Latvia, Malta 
and  Sweden).  One  Member  State  (Belgium)  reported  more  than  100  non-compliances  for 
petrol in 2017. 

Member States reported a total of 496 cases of non-compliance for petrol and 141 for diesel 
for  2017.  For  petrol,  the  most  common  parameters  falling  outside  the  specifications  were 
summer  vapour  pressure  (in  13  Member  States),  research  octane  number  (RON)  (in  nine 
Member States) and motor octane number (MON) (in seven Member States). For diesel, the 
most  common  parameters  falling  outside  the  specifications  were  the  FAME  content  (in  12 
Member States) and the sulphur content (in six Member States). 

All Member States described the actions taken when non-compliant samples were identified. 
These  included  informing  the  competent  authorities,  initiating  investigations,  imposing 
penalties  and  fines,  and  resampling.  In  a  small  number  of  cases,  no  action  has  been  taken 
where the non-compliant parameters were found to be very close to the tolerance limits. 

There was therefore no need for the Commission to launch any new investigation in this area. 

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