During its plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday, 10 March, the European Parliament adopted the decision to use the urgent procedure to amend the CO2 emission standards for new heavy-duty vehicles.
The European Parliament will vote on the proposal’s content on Thursday, 12 March. The purpose of this amendment—which the EU Council has already approved without any changes relating to the European Commission’s proposal (see EUROPE 13812/11)—is to give manufacturers additional flexibility in order to comply with the CO2 emissions target for 2030. It provides for the possibility of collecting more emission credits in the years prior to 2030, which can then be used for compliance purposes in subsequent years. However, it does not apply to city buses.
“The zero-emission truck market is growing but slower than previously expected. The answer is not to hit European manufacturers with fines while their Chinese and US competitors operate under no such pressure in their respective countries. That would not save the climate; it would only destroy European jobs and the competitiveness of our heavy-duty vehicle industry,” stated MEP Jens Gieseke (EPP, German), his group’s spokesman for transport and tourism, after the vote.
Read the European Commission’s proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/l3r (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)