Brussels, 03/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament gave the green light on third reading to the new directive on cutting the emission of pollutants from three and two wheel motor vehicles (amending Directive 97/24/EC). Adopting the report last Thursday by Bernd Lange (German Social Democrat), the European Parliament approved the agreement reached in March in Parliament - Council conciliation (see EUROPE of 27 March, p.11).
The Parliament considers that the fixing of limit values in two stages - first compulsory standards in April 2003 and far more restrictive norms from January 2006 - for vehicles that remain on the sidelines of the "Auto-Oil" legislation applicable to cars since 2000 is necessary as the two or three wheelers (motorbikes, scooters, motor tricycles) produce 15% of polluting emissions in the transport sector, although they only account for 2-3% of all road traffic in the Union.