Air pollution: emissions from small park ignition engines, non-road mobile machinery

The committee adopted the report by Bernd LANGE (PES, D) broadly approving the proposal under the codecision procedure (1st reading), subject to a number of amendments aimed at bringing in the new rules earlier than the Commission was proposing and ensuring that the loopholes left open for big manufacturers were closed. While it agreed that the new limit values for hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides should be aligned with those applied in the US, the committee refused to allow manufacturers to offset higher emission limits for some products against lower ones for others under the so-called "averaging and banking" system used in the US as this would give large-volume producers an unfair advantage. In its amendments, the committee also gave Member States a year rather than 18 months after the directive entered into force to meet the new limit values for nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons. It also brought forward the longer deadlines allowed for very small-series, mainly hand-held machines. �