Air pollution: emissions of gaseous and particulate pollutants from diesel engines (amend. Direct. 88/77/EEC)

The committee adopted the recommendation for second reading (codecision procedure) by Mr Bernd LANGE (PES, D) amending the proposed directive. In accordance with new arrangements following the adoption of the Amsterdam Treaty, the rapporteur would have talks with the Council to see whether, before Parliament voted on the report, a compromise could be reached on the committee's amendments to the Council's common position. The committee welcomed the fact that the Council had included restrictions on emissions from engines using natural gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and also welcomed the Council's proposal for a new category of "enhanced environmentally-friendly vehicles" (EEVs) with particularly ambitious exhaust gas emission limits. It highlighted the problem of pollution from C02, urging that heavy-duty vehicles be covered by the Community's strategy for reducing C02 emissions (based not on legislation but on a voluntary cutback agreement with manufacturers). The committee also wanted Member States to be allowed to provide financial or other incentives to promote the re-equipment of older vehicles to meet the new standards. In the case of EEVs, the committee favoured labelling the engines as "environmentally friendly" and also calling for fiscal incentives and for rules on noise and fuel consumption. It also proposed limits for ethanol used in diesel engine testing. Moreover, a European quality specification should be established for LPG fuel quality and LPG delivery pumps should be labelled to indicate fuel specification. As regards the mandatory limits proposed for 1 October 2005, the committee felt that the earlier limit of 5 g/KWh for nitrogen oxides could be retained provided that this was reduced to 2 on 1 October 2006.