Strasbourg, 20/12/2001 (Agence Europe) - With the adoption of the report by German Social Democrat Bernd Lange, the European Parliament gave its opinion last week at second reading on the draft directive relating to the reduction of the pollutant emissions level from two or three-wheeled motor vehicles (amendment of Directive 97/24/EC). The main amendments voted in plenary strengthen the Council's common position by re-establishing, for some, the Parliament requirements already set out in first reading, but which the Council has not taken into account. The Parliament calls for severe rules for reducing pollution caused by two and three-wheeled vehicles (which currently produce one hundred times more exhaust gas than cars), and trust that, from 2006, the new two and three wheeled vehicles are as clean as cars have been since 2000. The series of amendments voted call for: 1) the fixing of limit values for emissions of particles from vehicles equipped with compression ignition diesel engines, given that particles are a threat to human health; 2) the granting of tax incentives based on compulsory and not optional limit values; 3) the authorisation for Member States to take measures encouraging the installation, on old motor vehicles, of devices and parts that reduce emissions - so that the owners of old vehicles who cannot afford to buy a new, non-polluting vehicle or finance transformation are not the subject of discrimination and may, on the contrary, be encouraged to take part in the protection of the environment; 4) the fixing for 2006 of new emissions limits of a compulsory nature that are more ambitious than those fixed for 2003 (that is, the Euro II level adopted for emissions from private cars since 2000) and the application of the appropriate testing method (the Council common position makes the fixing of this second stage subject to the revision of the test cycle and to a more indepth analysis of the technical feasibility and the potential of emissions reduction offered by technology); 5) the establishment of conformity control on two or three-wheeled vehicles in circulation on 1 January 2006; 6) the establishment of specific requirements for the correct operation of emission-control devices during the normal life of two or three-wheel motor vehciles should be introduced (from January 2004 for up to five years or 30,000 km, whichever is the sooner, and as from January 2006 for up to five years or 50,000 km, whichever is the sooner). The Parliament considers that the control measures for purifying polluting gases on working vehicles are in the longer term just as important for air quality as the fixing of limit values relating to type testing in the context of conformity control.