CONCAWE Review – Autumn 1998

Volume 7 • Number 2: Dear Reader,

Agreement has now been reached between the Environment Council and the European Parliament on the 2000/2005 emission standards for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles and the related fuel quality requirements. In a press release Mrs Bjerregaard, the Commissioner responsible for the EU environmental legislation, acknowledged that ‘the cooperation of the industry preparing the required technical data on which the Commission’s proposals were based, has been crucial to the final result.’ CONCAWE appreciates this statement since its experts have contributed their share of technical information to facilitate the preparation of a scientifically justified Commission proposal based on environmental needs and cost-effective abatement measures.

However, CONCAWE considers that the ‘final result’, namely the Conciliation agreement between the Council and the European Parliament deviates from the principles originally agreed between them. The fixing of the 2005 fuel quality requirements now is premature and not based on the technical and scientific facts developed so far during the Auto/Oil programme. The conversion of the 2005 ‘indicative’ 50 ppm sulphur limit for gasoline and diesel fuel and the 35 per cent aromatics limit for gasoline into mandatory limits was supposed to be evaluated and confirmed during the ongoing Auto/Oil Programme II.