CELEX: 51991PC0154
Language: en
Date: 1991-06-10
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE RELATING TO THE SULPHUR CONTENT OF GASOIL

N o C 174/18                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                5.7. 91
                                                                 II
                                                         (Preparatory Acts)
                                                    COMMISSION
              Proposal for a Council Regulation (EEC) amending Regulation (EEC) No 1307/85 authorizing
                                    the Member States to grant consumption aid for butter
                                                           (91/C 174/08)
                                                       (COM(91) 224 final)
                                         (Submitted by the Commission on 14 June 1991)
 THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                            whereas given the market situation, the maximum level
                                                                     of aid should remain unchanged,
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
 Economic Community and in particular Articles 42 and
 43 thereof,                                                         HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                                           Article 1
 Having regard      to   the   opinion     of   the  European        In Article 1 of Regulation (EEC) No 1307/85 '1990/91'
 Parliament,                                                         is replaced by '1991/92'.
 Whereas the arrangement introduced by Regulation                                             Article 2
 (EEC) No 1307/85 0 , as last amended by Regulation
 (EEC) No 3232/90 (2), which authorizes Member States                This Regulation shall enter into force on the day of its
 to grant an aid for butter in favour of the final private           publication in the Official Journal of the European
 consumer, expires at the end of the milk year; whereas in           Communities.
 order to prevent a drop in butter consumption the aid
 arrangement introduced by Regulation (EEC) No                       It shall apply from the beginning of the 1991/92 milk
 1307/85 should be prolonged for the 1991/92 milk year;             year.
 (') OJ No L 137, 27. 5. 1985, p. 15.                               This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
 (') OJ No L 310, 9. 11. 1990, p. 8.                                directly applicable in all Member States.
                         Proposal for a Council Directive relating to the sulphur content of gasoil
                                                          (91/C 174/09)
                                                  COM(91) 154 final — SYN 340
                                        (Submitted by the Commission on 22 June 1991)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                            Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                    In cooperation with the European Parliament,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Economic Community and in particular Article 100a                   Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
thereof,                                                            Social Committee,
 ---pagebreak---  5.7.91                                  Official Journal of the European Communities                            N o C 174/19
 Whereas in order to improve air quality with regard to             decided to require a sulphur compound limit of 0,1 % by
 sulphur dioxide and other emissions, the Community has            weight in heating gasoils;
 to take measures to reduce progressively the sulphur
 content of gasoil used for automotive, heating, industrial
 and bunker purposes;                                              Whereas Council Directive 88/77/EEC (5), as amended
                                                                   by Directive 9 1 / . . ./EEC, concerning the emission of
                                                                    gaseous pollutants from diesel engines requires, inter
                                                                    alia, a substantial reduction in sulphur content in the
 Whereas, under Articles 2 (1) and 5 (1) of Council                second half of the 1990s; whereas meeting second-step
 Directive 75/716/EEC (') as amended by Directive                  standards for particulate emissions under that Directive
 87/219/EEC (2), the provisions in force in the Member             supposes amongst others the availability on the market
 States lay down two limits with respect to the sulphur            and the balanced distribution of automotive gasoils with
 content of liquid fuels; whereas these provisions differ          a sulphur compound content not exceeding 0,05 °/o by
 from one Member State to another;                                 weight as from 1 October 1995 and there is, therefore, a
                                                                   need to take appropriate measures for availability and
                                                                   balanced distribution of such fuel;
 Whereas these differences oblige Community oil
 companies to adjust the maximum sulphur content of
 their products, depending on which Member State is                Whereas the increasing use of gasoil for motor vehicles
 being supplied; whereas the differences thus constitute a         implies further efforts with regard to automotive gasoil,
 barrier to trade in these products, thereby directly              in order to limit the adverse effects on air quality of this
 influencing the establishment and functioning of the              increase; whereas to fix a maximum sulphur content of
 single market;                                                    0,05 % by weight applicable from 1 October 1996 for
                                                                   automotive gasoil provides the industries concerned with
                                                                   a sufficient period for the technical adaptation required;
Whereas, in addition, Article 6 of Directive 75/716/EEC
 provides that in the light of any new information                 Whereas a sudden change in crude oil supplies leading to
 available the Commission is to submit a report to the             an increase in average sulphur content may, in view of
 Council accompanied by an appropriate proposal with a             the available desulphurization capacity, jeopardize
view to the establishment of a single value;                       supplies to consumers in a Member State; whereas it
                                                                   would therefore seem advisable to authorize that
                                                                   Member State to derogate under certain conditions from
                                                                   the sulphur content limits laid down in respect of its own
Whereas successive action programmes of the European               market;
 Communities on the environment (3) stress the
 importance of preventing and reducing air pollution;
                                                                   Whereas checks should be carried out to ascertain the
                                                                   sulphur content of gasoils placed on the market; whereas
Whereas in addition, the Community is, by virtue of                a uniform method based on the best available technology
Council Decision 81/462/EEC (4), a contracting party to            should be adopted for this purpose;
the Convention on long-range transboundary air
pollution, which provides in particular for the devel-
opment of strategies and policies to limit and, as far as          Whereas it is to be expected with a view to Directive
                                                                   9 1 / . . ./EEC that there will be a switch to the use of
possible, gradually reduce and prevent air pollution;
                                                                   automotive gasoil with a low sulphur content of 0,05 %
                                                                   by weight where this does not entail excessive costs for
                                                                   the consumer;
Whereas reducing the sulphur content of gasoil serves to
further one of the Community's objectives, which is to
preserve, protect and improve the quality of the en-               Whereas Member States can in general introduce fiscal
vironment and to contribute towards protecting human               incentives to make it beneficial for consumers to buy
health, rectifying environmental damage at source;                 environmentally inoffensive products provided such
                                                                   incentives are compatible with the Treaty; whereas the
                                                                   need for a rapid improvement in air quality especially in
                                                                   urban areas and the fulfilment of the requirements laid
Whereas, in accordance with Directive 75/716/EEC,                  down by the EEC Directives on the reduction of gaseous
several Member States have already fixed a value of                pollutants from diesel engines make it particularly appro-
0,2 % by weight; whereas some EFTA countries have                  priate to take advantage of this possibility to make
                                                                   available as quickly as possible automotive gasoil with a
O OJ No L 307, 27. 11. 1975, p. 22.                                sulphur content of 0,05 % by weight,
(2) OJ No L 91, 3. 4. 1987, p. 19.
O OJ No C 112, 20. 12. 1973, p. 1; OJ No C 139, 13. 6. 1977,
    p. 1 and OJ No C 46, 17. 2. 1983, p. 1.
(4) OJ No L 171, 27. 6. 1981, p. 11.                               O OJ No L 36, 9. 2. 1988, p. 33.
 ---pagebreak---  No C 174/20                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                 5. 7. 91
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:                                        inform the Commission thereof. The Commission may
                                                                   authorize a higher limit to be applicable within the
                                                                   territory of that Member State for a period not
                            Article 1
                                                                   exceeding six months, and notify its decision to the
 1.    For the purposes of this Directive, gasoil shall mean       Council. Any Member State may refer the Commission's
any petroleum product falling under C N codes                      decision to the Council within one month. The Council,
2710 00 61, 2710 00 65 or 2710 00 69, or any petroleum             acting by a qualified majority, may take a different
product which, by reason of its distillation limits, falls        decision within two months.
into the category of middle distillates intended for use as
fuel and of which at least 85 % by volume, including                                       Article 3
distillation losses, distils at 350 °C.
                                                                  Member States may not, as from the dates of application
2.     This Directive shall not apply to gasoils:                 laid down in Article 2 (1) or (3), prohibit, restrict or
                                                                  impede the marketing of gasoils, on the grounds of
— contained in the fuel tanks of vessels or of motor              sulphur content, provided they comply with the
    vehicles crossing a frontier between a third country          requirements of this Directive.
    and a Member State,
                                                                                           Article 4
— intended for processing in the refining industry.
                                                                   1.    Member States shall take the necessary measures to
                                                                  check by sampling the sulphur content of gasoils which
                            Article 2
                                                                  are marketed.
 1.    Member States shall take all necessary steps to
ensure that automotive gasoils can be marketed in the             2.     The reference method adopted for determining the
Community only if their sulphur compound content,                 sulphur content of gasoils which are marketed shall be
expressed in sulphur (hereinafter 'sulphur content'), does        that defined by method ISO 8754. The statistical in-
not exceed:                                                       terpretation of the results of the checks made to deter-
                                                                  mine the sulphur content of the gasoils marketed shall
— 0,2 % by weight as from 1 October 1994,                         be made according to standard ISO 4259 (1979 edition).
— 0,05 % by weight as from 1 October 1996.
                                                                                           Article 5
2.     Member States shall ensure the availability and            As from the date laid down in Article 6, Directive
balanced distribution of automotive gasoils with a                75/716/EEC is replaced by this Directive.
sulphur content not exceeding 0,05 % by weight as from
1 October 1995. Gasoil of this quality shall represent, as                                 Article 6
from this date, not less than 25 % of the total amount of
automotive gasoil distributed in each Member State.               Member States shall bring into force the laws, regu-
                                                                  lations and administrative provisions necessary to comply
3.     Member States shall take all necessary steps to            with this Directive not later than 1 October 1993.
ensure that heating, industrial and bunker gasoils can be
marketed in the Community only if their sulphur content           They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
does not exceed:
                                                                  When Member States adopt these provisions, these shall
— 0,2 % by weight as from 1 October 1994,                         contain a reference to this Directive or shall be ac-
                                                                  companied by such reference at the time of their
— 0,1 % by weight as from 1 October 1999.                         official publication. The procedure for such reference
                                                                  shall be adopted by Member States.
4.    If, as the result of a sudden change in the supply of
crude oil or petroleum products, it becomes difficult for                                  Article 7
a Member State to apply the limit on the maximum
sulphur content of gasoil, that Member State shall                This Directive is addressed to the Member States.