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

OBJECTIVE: The Commission's amended proposal incorporated, in whole or in part, 22 of the 88 amendments adopted by the European Parliament at first reading. The amendments incorporated notably related to the following aspects: - tax incentives, subject to minor changes drafted by the Commission; - requirements of on-board diagnostics (OBD) systems; - the evaporative emissions test procedure; - insertion of a recital recalling that Member States should take measures to encourage faster progress towards replacing existing vehicles with low-emission vehicles. However, the Commission was unable to accept the amendments concerning, in particular, the following aspects: - tightening of the limit values applicable from the year 2000 and a change to the reference fuel used for approval testing; - replacement of indicative limit values proposed by the Commission for 2005 with even stricter values, compliance with which would be mandatory (it may be noted that the Commission has committed itself to undertaking an Auto-Oil 2 programme, one of the objectives of which is to confirm or revise the 2005 limit values at the earliest possible stage); - a new test procedure to reduce emissions during cold temperature conditions; - a different approach for in-use compliance testing; - the mandatory fitting of on-board diagnostic systems (OBD) on diesel vehicles from the year 2000; - extension of the durability requirement from 80 000 km to 160 000 km; - changes to the terms of reference of the Auto-Oil 2 programme. �