On Wednesday 7 May, the Member States’ representatives to the EU (Coreper) adopted their negotiating mandate on a targeted amendment to the regulation on CO2 standards for new passenger cars and light vans. They approved the Commission’s proposal without amendment.
This amendment is part of the Industrial Action Plan for the automotive sector presented by the European Commission at the beginning of April (see EUROPE 13612/14). The aim is to introduce flexibility: manufacturers’ compliance with the CO2 targets for 2025, 2026 and 2027 would thus be assessed over the whole three-year period based on their average performance, rather than on an annual basis. This will allow manufacturers to compensate for any excessive annual emissions by outperforming the target in the remaining year(s).
The day before, the European Parliament had approved the urgency procedure for this text at its plenary session (see EUROPE 13634/11). It is due to vote on its position at first reading on Thursday 8 May. If this is the case, the Council of the EU will approve the European Parliament’s position and the text will be adopted. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)