Control of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions resulting from the storage of petrol and its distribution from terminals to service stations, Stage 1

The Council adopted the following amendments by the EP in the common position, verbatim, in part or with different wording: Amendments 7, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 23. The Council did not accept the following EP amendments: 2, 6, 32, 18 and 31. Among the amendments not accepted by the Commission, the Council accepted, or accepted with different wording, the following EP amendments: 10 and 11. The Council did not accept the other EP amendments. In its common position, the Council included eleven of the twenty-five European Parliament amendments already included by the Commission in its modified proposal. In particular, the Council accepted the following amendments: - the amendment authorising the Member States to uphold more stringent measures for the protection of human health or the environment; - the amendment permitting the painting of tanks with a reflective paint to be carried out as part of the usual maintenance cycles of the tanks within a maximum additional period of three years relative to the timetable set by the Directive; - the inclusion of a new Annex IV relating to the specifications for bottom-loading, vapour collection and overfill protection of European road tankers. Otherwise, the Council introduced the following new items: - the scope of application of the Directive does not include seagoing ships; - the definition of 'existing' installations has been amended. 'Existing' installations are defined as meaning those which were in operation before the date on which the Directive entered into force or for which operating licences were granted before that date; - the figure indicating the total annual loss of petrol resulting from storage installations at terminals and service stations represents a 'target reference value' and not a mandatory legal limit; temporary derogations have been allowed, subject to the Commission's being notified of the decision: for the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, to allow the implementation of an existing national programme for the environment; - for existing terminals, the minimum throughput qualifying for the three-year adaptation period has been increased from 50 000 to 150 000 tonnes/year; for existing terminals with a throughput of less than 10 000 tonnes/year and for new terminals with a throughput of less than 5 000 tonnes/year located in small remote islands; - for existing service stations, the threshold qualifying for the three-year adaptation period has been increased from 500 to 1 000 m3/year, and from 200 to 500 m3/year for the six-year adaptation period; - for the obligations relating to reflective paint when the protection of certain rural sites justifies it. In the interests of preserving a degree of technical flexibility, the Council decided to: - eliminate the requirement that existing road tankers be fitted with equipment for bottom loading if loading takes place at a terminal to be equipped with a vapour recovery system; - to allow the use of dipsticks for certain measuring operations; - to allow intermediate storage of vapours to be substituted for immediate vapour recovery at terminals with a throughput of less than 25 000 tonnes/year; - providing that new tanks with external floating roofs must achieve an overall containment of vapours of 95%. Finally, the Council did not include any fiscal provision in the Directive and opted for a Type III(a) committee (rather than an ordinary advisory committee) to work on the technical monitoring and adaptation of the Directive; - to allow intermediate storage of vapours to be substituted for immediate vapour recovery at terminals with a throughput of less than 25 000 tonnes/year; - providing that new tanks with external floating roofs must achieve an overall containment of vapours of 95%. Finally, the Council did not include any fiscal provision in the Directive and opted for a Type III(a) committee (rather than an ordinary advisory committee) to work on the technical monitoring and adaptation of the Directive. �