Consumers and environment: availibility of information on fuel economy of new passengers cars

The Council in reaching its common position adopted in full or in part 14 amendments put forward by the European Parliament. Of these, a cluster of amendments regarding the deletion of the requirement to indicate average fuel costs, as well as amendments regarding the requirement to indicate CO2 emissions data alongside fuel economy data in promotional literature, had been rejected by the Commission. The main innovations introduced by the Council concern: - when reviewing the Directive, an enlargement of its scope to used cars should be considered; - clarifications of certain definitions to ensure full consistency with relevant existing Community legislation and to ease implementation; - the establishment of an Internet guide at Community level, on which the Commission has undertaken to work by the end of 1999, and to keep updated thereafter; - the text of Annex II relating to information to be given in the guide was detailed and clarified to ease implementation; a requirement to refer to the Community's target for average CO2 emissions was added; - Member States shall, as appropriate, provide for data on fuel economy and CO2 emissions to be indicated also in promotional material other than promotional literature; - explicit mention of measures to be taken according to the committee procedure, i.e. on the format of the label, the classification of car models in the guide, and the application to other media of the priciples established for national literature. The Council proposes the establishment of a specific management committee (IIIa).�