Air pollution: emissions from motor vehicles, Auto-oil programme (amend. Directive 70/220/EEC)

The main changes made by the Commission to its original proposal concern the following points: (1) objective of the proposal: the original proposal is to be amplified by adding measures dealing with light commercial vehicles (international category N1). Given that the limit values applicable to light commercial vehicles were definitively adopted by Directive 96/69/EC, moves should be made to ensure parallelism between the emissions standards for cars and those for light commercial vehicles after the year 2000; (2) the legal basis: the proposed measures modify the previous Commission proposal, which was based on Article 100a of the EC Treaty. Accordingly, these measures are submitted pursuant to Article 189a(2) of the EC Treaty; (3) the limit values applicable to light commercial vehicles in the year 2000/2001: in view of the results of the Auto-Oil programme, the Commission proposes to make the emissions standards applicable to light commercial vehicles more binding and to enhance them by adding fresh requirements. It is proposed that these measures should apply: - as from the year 2000, to new types of vehicle in class I, - as from the year 2001, to new types of vehicle in classes I and II, - as from the year 2001, to all new vehicles in class I, - as from the year 2002, to all the vehicles in classes I and II. There are also plans to implement, as from 2005, a second set of regulatory measures applicable to new types of vehicle. These measures will have to be confirmed by the Council and Parliament in the light of a fresh Commission proposal to be submitted in 1998. The new limit values proposed for the period as from 2000/2001 represent reductions of the following magnitude by comparison with the '1997 stage' emissions standards: - 40% in respect of nitrous oxides, 40% in respect of hydrocarbons and 30% in respect of carbon monoxide for petrol-driven light commercial vehicles; - 20% in respect of nitrous oxides, 65% in respect of hydrocarbons, 40% in respect of carbon monoxide and 35% in respect of particulates for diesel-driven light commercial vehicles. (4) on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems for light commercial vehicles: the Commission proposes that the requirements in respect of OBD systems should also apply to light commercial vehicles. The requirements applicable to diesel-powered light commercial vehicles would initially be optional; (5) second stage - 2005 - for light commercial vehicles and tax incentives: the proposal also fixes indicative limit values to be applied during a second stage in the reduction of emissions from these vehicles in the year 2005. The Member States may take these indicative values as a basis for granting tax incentives in order to encourage the early marketing of non-polluting vehicles. (6) finally, the Commission proposes to amend Article 5 of Directive 70/220/EEC in order to bring the annexes to that directive into line with technical progress and to remove the possibility of extending the type-approval of M1 or N1 vehicles to M2 or N2 vehicles whose reference mass does not exceed 2840 kg. �