CELEX: 51984PC0226(01)
Language: en
Date: 1984-06-06
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE APPROXIMATION OF THE LAWS OF THE MEMBER STATES CONCERNING THE LEAD AND BENZENE CONTENT OF PETROL

6. 7. 84                                    Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 178/5
                                                                   II
                                                           (Preparatory Acts)
                                                     COMMISSION
                Proposal for a Council Directive on the approximation of the laws of the Member States
                                         concerning the lead and benzene content of petrol
                                                          COM(84) 226 final
                                    (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 6 June 1984)
                                                            (84/C 178/05)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                            considerably the present levels of exhaust pollution
COMMUNITIES,                                                           and that the availability of unleaded petrol is a pre-
                                                                       requisite for the efficient functioning of certain
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the                           antipollution devices;
European Economic Community, and in particular
Article 100 thereof,
                                                                       Whereas existent or future disparities in the national
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                     laws of the Member States concerning the
                                                                       composition of petrol and, in particular, the rules
Having regard to the opinion of the European Par-
                                                                       governing the limitations on the lead content and on
liament,
                                                                       the benzene content of motor vehicle petrol may
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                       directly affect the proper functioning of the common
Social Committee,                                                      market;
Whereas the protection and improvement of public
health and of the environment currently and in the                     Whereas refining technology allows for a lowering of
future constitute a major preoccupation common to                      the maximum permitted lead content to 0,15 g Pb/1
all industrialized countries; whereas the effects on                   without adverse effects on the quality of petrol;
public health and the environment of pollution caused                  whereas specific difficulties pertaining to the structure
by substances emitted in the exhaust gas of vehicles                   of the refining industry and to the demand pattern
must be regarded as serious, owing to the continuous                   for leaded petrols in a Member State may require that
increase in the volume of motor traffic;                               the Commission grants a waiver for a limited period
                                                                       of time;
Whereas following the introduction of Council
Directive 70/220/EEC on the approximation of the
laws of the Member States relating to measures to                      Whereas lowering and ultimately eliminating the use
be taken against air pollution by gases from                           of lead in petrol will improve the health protection of
spark-ignition engines of motor vehicles ('), as last                  the population, particularly in areas with dense
amended by Directive 83/351/EEC (2), which was                         traffic; whereas the early introduction of unleaded
designed to curb air pollution caused by the emission                  petrol is also necessary to permit the application of
of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons and                          certain antipollution       technology for      reducing
nitrogen oxides from motor vehicles, Council                           drastically polluting emissions from motor vehicles, in
Directive 78/611/EEC on the approximation of the                       particular N O x and unburned hydrocarbons;
laws of the Member States relating to the lead
content of petrol (3) has fixed a maximum and a                        Whereas during a transitional period leaded petrol
minimum value for the permitted lead compound                          must still be available on Member States' markets,
content of petrol;                                                     together with unleaded petrol, in order to satisfy,
                                                                       under realistic economic and technical conditions, the
Whereas the third action programme on the                              requirements of an important fraction of the existing
environment (") provides for further efforts to reduce
                                                                       vehicle fleet;
(») O J N o L 7 6 , 6 . 4. 1970, p. 1.
O   O J N o L 197,20. 7. 1983, p. 1.                                   Whereas, owing to the importance of preventive
O   OJ No L 197, 22. 7. 1978, p. 19.                                   measures against adverse effects on public health and
(4) O J N o C 4 6 , 17. 2. 1983, p. 1.                                 the environment, Member States should be enabled to
 ---pagebreak--- No C 178/6                           Official Journal of the European Communities                                6.7.84
introduce unleaded petrol onto their markets at an              new provisions       for   the   lead content   become
earlier date than required by the Community as a                mandatory,
whole;
                                                                HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Whereas the protection of public health also requires
a limitation on the benzene content of petrol;
                                                                                         Article 1
Whereas provisions are required for the quality of              For the purpose of this Directive
unleaded petrol in terms of minimum research and
motor octane ratings in order to ensure a satisfactory          — 'petrol' means any fuel intended for the operation
operation throughout the Community of motor                         of internal combustion spark-ignited engines used
vehicles designed for being fuelled with such petrol;               for the propulsion of vehicles,
Whereas lead is only one of the constituent                     — 'unleaded petrol' means any petrol the contami-
compounds in the composition of petrol; whereas the                 nation of which by lead compounds, calculated in
reduction of elimination of lead must not have the                  terms of lead, shall not exceed 0,010 g Pb/1.
effect of aggravating the air pollution by other sub-
stances which might be emitted as a consequence of
modifications in this composition;                                                       Article 2
                                                                From 1 July 1989, the maximum permitted lead
Whereas the limitation of the lead content as well as           compound content of petrol placed upon the
the introduction of unleaded petrol at any date must            Community's internal market, calculated in terms of
in no way affect the free circulation or marketing of           lead, shall be 0,15 g Pb/1.
petrol within the Community;
                                                                                         Article 3
Whereas a regular check at the final distribution level
of the lead and benzene content is required for the             Taking into account specific difficulties due to the
protection of human health and to ensure that the               structure of the refining industry and the demand
consumers receive the appropriate type of petrol;               pattern for leaded petrols, the Commission, on the
                                                                basis of a duly justified request of a Member State,
                                                                may waive for a limited period of time the application
Whereas any misfuelling must be prevented by legal              of Article 2 with a maximum permitted lead content
and technical means e.g. by colouring of leaded                 of 0,40 g Pb/1.
petrol; whereas the consumer must be protected from
running his vehicle with petrol for which it is not
designed;                                                                                Article 4
                                                                1.    Member States shall take all necessary measures
Whereas a substantial fraction of the existing motor            to ensure that both leaded as well as unleaded petrol
vehicle fleet could run on unleaded petrol provided             are marketed throughout their territory from 1 July
the quality requirements are matched and therefore              1989 onwards.
adequate incentives compatible with the provisions of
the Treaty may be needed to promote the largest                 2.    Member States may require that unleaded petrol
possible use of such petrol, in particular that unleaded        is made available upon their markets as from
petrol should be made available, as far as possible, at         1 January 1986.
a lower retail price level than the leaded one;
                                                                3.    From 1 January 1986 Member States shall not
Whereas further examinations of some aspects of the             prohibit the marketing of unleaded petrol on their
measures taken to reduce the content of lead or other           territory.
polluting substitutes in the atmosphere should be
continued at Community level; whereas Member
States should, on request, provide the Commission                                        Article 5
with relevant information;
                                                                From 1 July 1989 the content of benzene in leaded
                                                                and unleaded petrols shall not exceed 5,0 % by
Whereas to avoid a legal gap concerning the                     volume. Where Article 4 (2) is invoked, this benzene
maximum lead content of petrol, Article 2 of                    limitation shall apply for unleaded petrol from the
Directive 78/611/EEC must remain in force until the             earlier date.
 ---pagebreak--- 6.7.84                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 178/7
                          Article 6                                                         Article 11
1.      Unleaded petrols put upon the market shall have           Member States shall take the necessary measures to
                                                                  ensure that any leaded petrol put on the market shall
— an octane rating of . . .('regular' grade),                     be properly marked by the addition of colouring
— an octane rating of . . . ('premium' grade) (x).                agents as specified in Annex 2.
2.      Member States shall ensure the simultaneous
introduction, the general availability and an equitable                                     Article 12
distribution of both grades throughout their
                                                                  Member States shall take appropriate measures to
territories.
                                                                  ensure that the use of leaded petrol is prohibited in
                                                                  motor vehicles designed to run on unleaded petrol( 2 ).
                          Article 7
Member States shall take all appropriate steps to
ensure that neither the reduction of the lead content                                       Article 13
nor the introduction of unleaded petrol cause a                   1.     Member States are invited to promote the widest
significant increase in the emission of other                     possible use of unleaded petrol by all existing vehicles
pollutants.                                                       capable of running on such fuel, in particular for the
                                                                  application of Article 4, paragraph 2 and, to this end,
                          Article 8                               to take all appropriate measures compatible with the
                                                                  provisions of the Treaty.
Member States shall not prevent or restrict the free
circulation and marketing of petrol which is in
conformity with the requirements of the present                   2.    For this purpose they are invited to give
Directive. Nevertheless, this shall not apply to petrol           incentives such that unleaded petrol is marketed, as
placed on the market of a Member State by virtue of               far as possible, at a retail price level lower than that
a waiver granted under the provisions of Article 3.               of leaded petrol.
                          Article 9
                                                                                            Article 14
1.      Member States shall take appropriate steps to
ensure that the requirements concerning the                       1.     Member States shall supply the Commission, as
maximum content of lead and benzene in petrol as                  early as possible, with information on:
well as the quality of petrol are checked regularly at
the final distribution level.                                     — the date of introduction of unleaded petrol onto
                                                                      the market according to Article 4, paragraph 2;
2.      Where a Member State establishes that petrol
fails to comply with the requirements of Articles 1, 2,
5, 6 and 11 it shall take without undue delay the                 — the measures envisaged pursuant to Article 13.
necessary measures to ensure that these requirements
are fulfilled.
                                                                  2.    At the Commission's request, Member States
                                                                  shall supply information on:
                          Article 10
1.      The lead content of petrol shall be established in        (a) the annual quantities of leaded and unleaded
accordance with the procedures set out in Annex 1.1.                   petrol made available for the Community's
                                                                       internal market and on the number of stations
2.      The benzene content of leaded and unleaded                     offering leaded and/or unleaded petrol;
petrol shall be established in accordance with the
procedure set out in Annex 1 II.
                                                                  (b) the results of quality checks carried out in
                                                                       accordance with Article 9, paragraph 1;
3.      The theoretical octane ratings (RON and
MON) of unleaded petrol shall be determined in
accordance with the procedure set out in Annex.                   (c) the effects of the operation of this Directive, and
 1 .III.                                                               in particular,
(') The exact values will be proposed by the Commission on
     30 September 1984. The other technical specifications for    (2) The Commission envisages mandating the CEN (Comite
     unleaded petrol (referred to in this Directive) will be          Europeen de Normalisation) to establish as soon as
     proposed by the Commission at the same date. They will           possible a European standard for the technical means to
     correspond to a European Standard to be established by           prevent, at the distribution level, misfuelling of motor
     CEN (Comite Europeen de Normalisation).                          vehicles designed for unleaded petrol.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 178/8                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                                    6. 7. 84
     — on Article 7 thereof;                                                2.    The Member States shall ensure that they
     — on the development of the concentrations of                          communicate to the Commission the texts of the
         lead      and     polluting     substitutes     in     the         provisions of national law which they adopt in the
         atmosphere;                                                        field governed by the Directive.
     — on energy policy and especially on the reper-                                                 Article 16
         cussions on the refinery and distribution
         sector.                                                            Directive 78/611/EEC (') will cease to be effective
                                                                            from 1 July 1985 onwards, except for the provisions
                                                                            of its Article 2 which shall remain in force until
                                                                            30 June 1989.
                            Article 15
                                                                                                     Article 17
1.    Member States shall adopt and publish the laws,
                                                                           This Directive is addressed to the Member States.
regulations and administrative provisions necessary to
comply with this Directive before 1 July 1985 and
shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.                              O OJ N o L 197, 22. 7. 1978, p. 19.
                                                                  ANNEX      1
               For the methods, the versions in the various languages published by BSI and ASTM respectively
               shall be authentic, as shall other language versions which the Commission certifies as conforming to
               them.
                  I. Reference method for lead content of petrol
                     A. Leaded petrol
                         For the measurement of the lead content of petrol the reference method shall be that laid
                         down in ASTM 3341 (edition approved . . .).
                     B. Unleaded petrol
                         For the measurement of trace lead content of petrol the reference method shall be that laid
                         down in ASTM D 3237 (edition approved 31 August 1979) using atomic absorption
                         spectrometry.
                II. Reference method for benzene content of petrol
                     For the measurement of the benzene content of petrol the reference method shall be that laid
                     down in ASTM D 2267 (edition approved . . .) using gas chromatographic determination with
                     polar column and internal standard.
               III. Reference methods for the determination of octane ratings
                     The theoretical octane ratings (Research Octane Number and Motor Octane Number) shall be
                     determined by the ASTM methods 2699/70 and 2700/70 respectively.
              IV. Interpretation of results
                     The results of individual measurements shall be interpreted on the basis of the method described
                     in BS 4306: 1981, published by the British Standard Institution.
                                                                  ANNEX      2
                                     Colouring agents (') admitted for the marking of leaded petrol
              The following substances shall be used for giving a                  colour to all leaded petrol as required
               under the provisions of Article 11:
               (') The Commission will provide the list of substances by 30 September 1984.