Brussels – Today in Brussels, MEPs approved their position on the Euro 7 emission standard, which talks about the limits of exhaust fumes for cars and trucks. The report was supported by 329 MEPs, 230 were against and 41 abstained. The new regulation updates limits for exhaust gas emissions such as nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, carbon monoxide and ammonia, and introduces new measures to reduce emissions from tires and brakes and to increase battery life.
Only the next weeks will show what the final version of the regulation will be. The meetings of the representatives of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU will now follow. MEP Alexandr Vondra (ODS), who is the rapporteur of the proposal in the EP, has already stated that he hopes that the final agreement will be reached by the end of this year.
According to the proposal, which was already approved on September 25 by the ministers of the EU member states responsible for competitiveness, car manufacturers should reduce the emissions of new vehicles less than the original plan, and at the same time they should have a longer time to prepare the changes. Specifically, the emission limits for passenger and commercial vehicles should remain at the level already contained in the current Euro 6 emission standard. As for trucks, these limits should be slightly stricter.
“I support the Commission’s aim to have cleaner cars and to improve air quality, but at the same time we have to be very careful. Not only because this sector represents more than nine percent of GDP, 26 percent of manufacturing and more than 20 percent of exports in the country that the best I know,” said Vondra, a member of the European conservative faction, during a debate in parliament on Wednesday evening.
As he added, the commission’s original proposal would have a very negative impact on both consumers and car manufacturers. “At the same time, there are serious questions about the feasibility of the recommended standards, especially with regard to the deadlines. Thirdly, costs are also something we are concerned about, as they were underestimated in the impact assessment, which could lead to rising costs for consumers who are already struggling with rising the cost of living. That’s why we wanted to create a better balance between environmental goals and the interests of producers and consumers,” added the Czech MEP. According to Vondra, they succeeded after four months of negotiations.
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee (ENVI) approved its report on the emission standard in mid-October. The Euro 7 emissions regulation was originally supposed to come into effect for passenger cars already in mid-2025, two years later for trucks. However, many EU countries considered it unrealistic. Automakers complained that they would not have enough time to prepare the changes. The compromise from the Council of the EU has therefore extended the original schedule and provides for the introduction of measures 30 months after the entry into force of the standard for new models of passenger vehicles and 42 months for existing models. For trucks, it should have been 48 months and 60 months, respectively. In the end, the European Parliament proposes an even longer transitional period. However, only the upcoming trialogues will show which variant will ultimately be agreed upon.
The Euro 7 regulation also newly introduces the measurement of emissions from brakes and tires, which affect human health. MEPs suggest that the related calculation methodologies and limits be aligned with international standards currently being prepared by the UN Economic Commission for Europe.
Already during the debate on the norm on Wednesday evening, the European Parliament split into two camps. According to German MEP Jens Gieseke from the People’s Party (EPP), the proposal is “a good compromise and a healthy middle way”. Susana Solísová Perézová, a Spanish MEP from the liberal club Renew Europe, spoke similarly. “There are realistic deadlines, it means less cost to consumers. What the Socialists and the Greens are asking for would basically lead to the cost to consumers going up,” she said.
Christel Schaldemose from the faction of Democrats and Socialists, on the other hand, sharply criticized the proposal and called it wrong. “Thousands of citizens die every year due to air pollution. I find it embarrassing that we do not take the health of citizens seriously,” said the Danish MEP, saying that, in her opinion, the proposal is not ambitious enough.
“Sometimes I feel that the debate around Euro 7 is more about cars than about air quality. At the same time, it is about improving the air quality in our cities, where road traffic is still the biggest polluter,” responded Bas Eickhout from the Netherlands on behalf of the Green club. “Now we are actually setting the Euro 6 standard again, there is no improvement in air quality here,” he added.
Czech MEP Mikuláš Peksa (Pirates), also from the Greens club, made a similar statement. “There are some good things in that proposal, but most of it is essentially unnecessary ballast,” he told Czech journalists in Brussels, adding that not much has changed compared to the previous Euro 6 standard. “I would rewrite the whole thing. Shorten it to a third and it would still have the same meaning,” added Peksa. According to him, it is now essential to decide whether we want to regulate the emissions of nitrogen oxide and other pollutants at the last moment before the end of combustion engines. “If we’re going to do it, we’ve got to do it properly,” he concluded.
As part of the package known as Fit for 55, with which the EU wants to achieve a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 by at least 55 percent compared to 1990 values, the European Union approved this spring the end of sales of cars with internal combustion engines by 2035. However, Germany agreed with the European Commission on the fact that even after this year it will be possible to continue to use combustion engines powered exclusively by synthetic fuels.
The original Euro 7 proposal would have had a devastating impact on consumers, Vondra said
The original draft of the emission standard from the European Commission would have a devastating impact on consumers, car companies talked about the fact that they would have to stop selling small cars. After the approval of the European Parliament’s position on the Euro 7 emission standard, Czech MEP Alexandr Vondra (ODS), who is the standard’s rapporteur in the European Parliament, told journalists. As Vondra stated, he does not expect major disputes in further negotiations in the so-called trialogues and hopes for an agreement by the end of the year.
The closely watched Euro 7 standard talks about exhaust gas limits for cars and trucks and introduces new measures to reduce emissions from tires and brakes and to increase battery life.
Only the next weeks will show what the final version of the regulation will be. The meetings of the representatives of the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU will now follow. Vondra confirmed at the press conference that they officially started the trials today – in writing. Two meetings should follow, one at the end of November and the other in mid-December.
According to the proposal, which was already approved on September 25 by the ministers of the EU member states responsible for competitiveness, car manufacturers should reduce the emissions of new vehicles less than the original plan, and at the same time they should have a longer time to prepare the changes. Specifically, the emission limits for passenger and commercial vehicles should remain at the level already contained in the current Euro 6 emission standard. As for trucks, these limits should be slightly stricter.
According to the EC’s original plan, the Euro 7 emission regulation was supposed to come into effect for passenger cars already in mid-2025, two years later for trucks. However, many EU countries considered it unrealistic. Automakers complained that they would not have enough time to prepare the changes. The compromise from the Council of the EU has therefore extended the original schedule and provides for the introduction of measures 30 months after the entry into force of the standard for new models of passenger vehicles and 42 months for existing models. For trucks, it should have been 48 months and 60 months, respectively.
The position approved by the European Parliament today, however, proposes an even longer transition period. “If we want any changes, we have to give business time to adapt. What the European Commission proposed were completely draconian deadlines. So we extended them, and at the same time, in our proposal, we want to force the Commission to have the sword of Damocles over it and prepare the so-called secondary legislation to this standard, which is various technicalities,” Vondra explained. Only after the publication of this secondary legislation will the mentioned transition periods for individual cars begin to run, during which the industry will be able to prepare for the changes.
The Czech Republic, which led a coalition of like-minded states that also included France, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, played a significant role in negotiating the proposal in the Council of the European Union. All these countries opposed the original, in their view, unrealistic version of the standard proposed by the European Commission. With the subsequent compromise presented at the end of September by the Spanish Presidency, however, these countries were already satisfied.
Today, Alexandr Vondra once again praised the EU Council’s position from the end of September, and thanked the Czech Minister of Transport, Martin Kupka, who negotiated it. “It made our work a lot easier, the position of the council and the position of the parliament are not that far apart,” said the Czech MEP. As he added, if the emission limits in the standard eventually approach the previous Euro 6 standard (which is what the council’s proposal says), then, according to him, the parliament will not have to insist on longer transition periods. “But I don’t want to foreshadow it, it will be subject to negotiation,” added Vondra.
The report was supported by 329 MEPs, 230 were against and 41 abstained. Of the Czech MEPs, all four MEPs for ODS, who belong to the ECR faction, voted for the proposal. From the People’s Party, Stanislav Polčák (STAN), Jiří Pospíšil and Luděk Niedermayer (TOP 09), Michaela Šojdrová and Tomáš Zdechovský (KDU-ČSL) and from the Renew Europe club, which includes MEPs elected for the ANO movement, were for Dita Charanzová and Martina Dlabajová . The proposal was also supported by Radka Maxová from the group of European Socialists and Democrats and SPD MEP Ivan David. Martin Hlaváček, Ondřej Knotek and Ondřej Kovařík belonging to the ANO movement from the Renew Europe faction and MEP Kateřina Konečná for the KSČM voted against. Markéta Gregorová, Marcel Kolaja and Mikuláš Peksa from the Green faction abstained from being elected for the Pirates. SPD MEP Hynek Blaško did not participate in the vote.
EU automotive air parliament emissions PHOTO FLASH
