Brussels, 14/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 14 March, the Greek Presidency provided information to the European delegations at the Transport Council about the level of progress in negotiations on finding appropriate fuel alternatives.
A trialogue meeting on the alternative fuel recharge infrastructure is planned for 20 March and is expected to be the last one. As things currently stand, nothing can be assumed to have been definitively concluded but a certain number of major guidelines have been produced over the course of the negotiations. One source close to the dossier indicated that national recharge station quotas for member states, as proposed by the European Commission, would not be maintained. The member states themselves will submit their own targets to the Commission. These targets will be binding. The Council would like a timetable to be differentiated in accordance with each kind of fuel. The 2020 deadline would be maintained for recharging stations for electric cars and those powered by compressed natural gas in urban areas. Recharge stations for hydrogen, compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas for cars, heavy-duty vehicles and ships should be introduced by 2025. Liquefied natural gas should be available in inland ports by 2030. European Commissioner for Transport Siim Kallas stated at the end of the meeting that they needed to be attentive to this timetable and he expressed a preference for a comprehensive deadline to be introduced for 2020, as proposed by his staff. He also confirmed that a number of legal questions would still be pending in order to establish a balance between delegated and implementing acts.
The Greek Presidency has already reported back to the European delegations on the trilogues that finished at the beginning of the year on European airport restrictions on noise pollution from aircraft and the EU Community fleet in inland river transport. (MD)