Brussels, 20/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - Could urban electric transport become a reality by 2020? The Council and European Parliament have at least managed to agree on the best way of encouraging the use of alternative fuels to oil in transport, such as electricity, gas and hydrogen. On Thursday 20 March they reached an informal agreement at the trialogue on a draft directive from the Commission to set up a network of clean energy recharging stations between 2020 and 2030. This strategy aims to break the vicious circle of investors who do not invest in fuel replacements due to lack of demand and consumers who are deterred due to the lack of supply.
National plans. To achieve this aim, the ball is now in the court of the member states. They will have to submit their national plans to the Commission. These will include binding targets on the number of recharging stations that will be available to the public. Plans will be made public two years after adoption of the directive and the Commission will have a year to comment. The targets will be differentiated according to the kind of energy used, as will the timetable for attaining them. The Commission had already set up a list of quotas, which was halved by the Parliament, but the concept was not retained after the trialogue negotiations. National plans will also stipulate other incentives so that member states will take a proactive approach to setting up this network.
Targets and timetable. Making urban transport cleaner appears to be the main priority. National targets on recharging points for cars running on electricity or compressed natural gas (CNG) will have to be attained by 2020. 2025 is the next deadline for hydrogen from liquefied natural gas (LNG) or compressed gas used for heavy goods vehicles and cars on the core Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T). The same applies to LNG recharging stations in TEN-T ports for ships. The next efforts to be made will be those to set up LNG stations along the TEN-T inland waterways network in 2030.
Standards. The directive also sets out a certain number of standards (electric and for hydrogen) to respect during the three years after adoption of the rules. Others will be developed later and adopted by delegated acts. The electricity recharging plug adopted will be the German type 2 for all new standards but member states will be able to have their own kinds of plugs used alongside this, if they have already developed, as in France.
Swifter approval. Coreper is expected to ratify the informal agreement on Wednesday 27 March, the EP transport committee on 1 April and the plenary during the final session in Strasbourg that same month. Industry will therefore be able to count on a reliable legislative framework. (MD)