EU Environment Ministers meet to try to reach common position on car and commercial vehicle emissions

On Tuesday 28 June, the Environment Ministers of the EU Member States will try to agree on a common position (‘general approach’) for future negotiations with the European Parliament on CO₂ emission performance standards for cars and vans.

Several changes have been made in the latest version of the French Presidency of the EU Council’s (FPEU) compromise text, which was already analysed on 21 June by the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (‘Coreper’).

The ambitions have been increased for passenger cars by 2030. While the European Commission initially proposed that the fleet should aim to reduce emissions by 37.5% by this deadline, the new text proposes that the bar be raised to 55%.

The same applies to the fleet of light commercial vehicles. The initial reduction target was set at 31% by 2030. This target is now set at 50%.

The new version of the text also provides some clarification on the monitoring and reporting of average emissions for new commercial vehicles by Member States.

While the deadlines and targets remain similar to those set by the Commission, the text clarifies that where the Commission finds that the provisional data submitted by Member States - or the data notified by manufacturers - is based on incorrect data, it will have to inform the type approval authority or, where appropriate, the manufacturer.

A request to issue a statement of correction specifying the corrected data would then be sent to the manufacturer before this correction statement is then transmitted to the Commission.

The text also maintains the possibility of requesting derogations from emission targets. This could be done under certain conditions such as producing less than 10,000 new passenger cars or less than 22,000 light commercial vehicles registered in the EU per year.

However, the text specifies that a derogation could be granted for specific applicable emission targets only up to and including the calendar year 2029.

In addition, the document to be discussed by the Environment Ministers also requires the Commission to report on progress “by 31 December 2025, and every 2 years thereafter”.

The report should focus on the need for possible additional measures to facilitate the transition, “including through financial means”.

See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/2cg (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)