Strasbourg, 05/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption on Tuesday of the report by Bernd Lange (PES, Germany), the European Parliament decided to support the Commission in its efforts aimed at cracking down on pollution caused by non-road mobile machinery (lawnmowers, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, etc.), provided the loopholes left open for big manufacturers are closed.
The European Parliament agreed that the new limit values fixed for emissions of hydrocarbons (HC) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) must be aligned with those which are applied in the United States, in two stages, as the Commission proposes. It voted, however, largely in favour of the abolition of the loophole allowing manufacturers to offset higher emission limits for some products against lower ones for others under the averaging and banking system (used in the US) as long as the average emission reached is below the norms, as it considers that this derogation granted to manufacturers would have the effect of giving an unfair advantage to large producers. During the debate, this system was defended by the Environment Commissioner Margot Wallström, who noted its importance for the harmonisation of world-wide trade. Bernd Lange recalled for his part that pollution due to "leisure machinery" is one of the main factors of ozone formation.
In order to have the directive go through Parliament in a single reading, MEPs accepted a series of compromise amendments negotiated with the Council by Mr Lange. The first, adopted by 19 votes (266 to 247), exempts chainsaws from the directive. Other amendments establish an 18 month deadline for transposition of the directive into Member State law and in order to constitute the list of small manufacturers producing less than 25,000 units annually. According to the terms of the compromise adopted, the European Parliament also classified generators, pumps and engines used to power snow throwers as "hand equipment" in order to give them the more generous limit values and slightly longer compliance times. Although the EP hopes that the Member States will grant economic incentives to manufacturers to make up for the costs of application, in order to reach the limits set for the second stage earlier, and to allow producers to use ecolabels for indicating that the equipment has reached limit values earlier, it also hopes that the Commission will determine whether it is impossible for some mobile gear to conform to the limits set for the second stage within the time set and whether, as a consequence, they should be granted derogation.