2023-09-30 12:25:50
“The position of the Council – the body that represents EU governments – on the ‘Euro 7’ It’s a disaster for air quality, putting automakers’ record profits ahead of people’s health. Instead of reducing pollution, it will whiten current cars green ‘Euro 6’ -in force since 2014- polluting as clean ‘Euro 7’ vehicles,” Anna Krajinska, from the NGO Transport and Environment, lamented at the beginning of the week about the pact closed by the Twenty-seven to regulate polluting emissions from vehicles, trucks and buses that will be marketed in the near future in the EU.
Environmental groups and organizations like this one have shouted this week about the result of a political agreement – agreed for the moment only between the Twenty-Seven – that lowers the ambition of the original proposal of the European Commission, postpones the entry into force of the new standards and puts health and air quality below the competitiveness of the European automobile industry. Brussels proposed that the new requirements come into force on July 1, 2025. The International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT), an American non-profit organization, estimates that if it is not applied from that date, there will be 7,500 additional premature deaths In the continent.
Despite warnings like this, supported by analysis and data from the European Environment Agency, pressure from manufacturers has led the Twenty-seven to give in to the industry and adopt a much less severe approach, with new deadlines, citing the excessive impact that the rules will have on the European automotive sector. Also weighing has been the fact that the European Union has decided to ban cars with combustion engines in 2035 and that tightening emissions rules now would mean a double burden, according to governments and manufacturers, for a sector that employs 14 million workers.
Cost of standards
The result represents the first obstacle to reducing the toxic air we breathe and which the EU is trying to achieve in parallel with the revision of the two directives on air quality. When it presented its proposal, almost a year ago, the Commission estimated the increase in costs for consumers between 90 and 150 euros in the case of passenger cars and vans and around 2,700 euros for vans and trucks. In May, the manufacturers’ association warned that the cost would skyrocket much higher, up to 2,000 euros for combustion cars and close to 12,000 euros for diesel trucks and buses. That is, between 4 and 10 times more than the impact estimated by Brussels.
This week’s political agreement confirms that the industry’s alarm has been heard, that governments have chosen to lower their ambition and respond to the demands of car manufacturers despite the fact that pollution from fine particles or the nitrogen oxides It is the main cause of dirtying the air we breathe. Hence, compared to the deadlines foreseen by Brussels – the new rules were to come into force in mid-2025 – the Twenty-Seven are in favor of the new standards being applied a little later, 30 months after the co-legislators – Council and European Parliament – reach an agreement in the case of new vehicles and 42 months in the case of trucks.
This, according to the Spanish Ministry of Industry, implies that the new standards will not be applicable before 2026, although the date could vary depending on when the inter-institutional negotiations that have not yet begun are closed. At the moment, the vote on the mandate of the European Parliament in the environment committee is scheduled for October 12, while it will be in November when the plenary session will be pronounced, so only once that stage is passed can the trilogues from which it will emerge be able to begin the final agreement.
The European Parliament rapporteur is the Czech conservative Alexander Vondra whose position is similar to that of the eight Member States –France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic– more hostile to the tightening of the rules, which have forced the rest of the European partners to lower their ambition for the sake of consensus, to protect a European automobile industry that, if stricter rules were applied, they understand, would be in danger. Vondra values the result achieved at ministerial level because it “significantly limits the radical proposal of the European Commission” and will try to achieve a similar result with its European Parliament report.
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