Eric von Breska, Deputy Director-General for Investment, Innovative and Sustainable Transport (DG MOVE) at the European Commission, said, on Wednesday 24 September to the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN,) that the Commission could propose a package of measures aimed at making corporate fleets more environmentally friendly by the end of the year.
Presenting the communication analysing the technological and commercial maturity of heavy-duty road transport vehicles (see EUROPE 13650/6), Mr von Breska pointed out that an impact assessment is currently underway, which will influence this proposal. The study focuses in particular on CO2 emissions, the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and costs.
“My personal expectation is that the Commission will make a proposal on this without at this point having clarity as to what this proposal would look like”, he said. “Because, as you certainly know, from all the feedback which we have collected, it seems that national incentives or fiscal measures also seem to be probably the most powerful tools to do this”.
However, he was met with scepticism by Jens Giesecke (EPP, German). “This is a very controversial subject. And in a way, it’s always a bit disappointing to see that we now have to work on corporate fleets because industry asked for it. The industry to which I talk to, they overwhelmingly say we do not need any mandate for corporate fleets”, stressed the MEP.
“If you talk about corporate fleets, I would love to hear something about the CO2 emissions for cars and vans, because obviously there the need to do something is urgent”, he added. “We have had three rounds of strategic dialogue with no real results in the sense of concrete steps that should be followed”.
Mr von Breska replied that this aspect would no doubt be taken into account in the package. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)