Draft Council directive on laying down calculation methods and reporting requirements pursuant to Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels

The European Parliament rejected, by 337 votes to 325 with 48 abstentions, a draft Council Directive .../.../EU 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.

In its draft resolution, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety asked Parliament to oppose the adoption of the draft Council directive, which it felt was not compatible with the aim and content of Directive 98/70/EC. The revised Directive 98/70/EC on the quality of petrol and diesel required suppliers to report annually on the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per unit of energy of fuel and energy supplied within each Member State, and to reduce by at least 6 % the lifecycle GHG intensity of the fuels supplied by 31 December 2020 compared to the EU average for lifecycle emissions per unit of energy from fossil fuels in 2010.

The Directive required that suppliers calculate and report lifecycle GHG emissions for biofuels either by using actual values or by using default values based on the feedstock-specific production pathways.

The committee called on the Commission to submit a new draft directive, based on the requirement that disaggregated average default GHG intensity values should be reported by feedstock types for petrol and diesel, while allowing suppliers to report actual values.