EU Policy News

Call for Tender: Monitoring report of the Clean Vehicles Directive

The European Commission has published a Call for Tender for the monitoring report of the Directive 2009/33/EC on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles (according to Article 10 of the Directive). The time-limit for receipt of tenders or requests to participate is set as 8 September 2011 at 16h Brussels time. The objective of this contract is to provide a monitoring study on the implementation of the Directive. The study should provide a documentation and analysis of the actions taken by the Member States to promote the purchase of clean vehicles. It shall also asses the effects of the Directive, in particular the resulting impacts on the market development of clean and energy-efficient vehicles. Based on the analysis it is expected that the need for further action is assessed and appropriate recommendations are made.

The Clean Vehicles Directive aims at promoting and stimulating the development of a market for clean and energy-efficient vehicles and introduces for the first time sustainability obligations into public procurement law for the whole EU. As such, the Directive requires public authorities and some other operators to take into account the impact of these vehicles during their operational lifetime in terms of energy consumption, CO₂ emissions and other pollutant emissions. Its scope applies to contracts for the purchase of road transport vehicles entered into by (a) contracting authorities and contracting entities and (b) operators for the discharge of public service obligations under a public service contract. Under the Directive the Member States shall ensure that these actors take into account the operational lifetime energy and environmental impacts when purchasing road transport vehicles.

The energy and environmental impacts taken into consideration include: energy consumption, emissions of CO₂, and emissions of NOx, NMHC and particulate matter.

Following up on the implementation of the Directive, on July 16^th the European Commission has published its reasoned opinion, which is the first step in the infringement procedures for the application of the EU Law. Upon a review of the national implementation measures reported to it so far, the Commission listed ten Member States that have failed to achieve satisfactory transposition of the EU Directive into national law for which the set deadline was 4 December 2010. The Member States included in the reasoned opinion are: Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The Commission notes that failing to implement this Directive appropriately means that public authorities and transport operators in the Member States concerned may not be obliged to purchase of clean and energy-efficient vehicles. This could slow down improvements in the energy and environmental performance of the road vehicle fleet within the EU.

An interesting observation on the Member States listed in the reasoned opinion is the inclusion of the two rather advanced countries, such as Sweden and the UK, as far as the green public procurement rules are concerned. The problem in this context is reconciling EU Law with the already existing national legislation that in effect may cause problems for transposition purposes but not necessarily hinder the practical implementation of such rules.

For more information on the call for tender, please refer to the contract notice.

For more information on the Clean Vehicles Directive, please refer to EUR-lex.

If you have any further information or opinions as regards to the implementation of the Directive in your countries you are warmly invited to share them with us and other followers below in the comments section.

Further Reading »

Positive Discussion on ETS and Energy Efficiency

The meeting of Energy ministers in Denmark on Friday 20 April 2012 concluded by reaching an agreement on the approach recommended by the European Commission in its energy roadmap to 2050. Europe’s energy future will involve higher efficiency, more renewables and infrastructure upgrades, they said.
The ministers backed the roadmap’s ‘no regret’ options, which the commission says would apply to all decarbonisation scenarios envisaged in the document, regardless of the choices made by member states.

..read more Updated 24 Apr, 2012

EU Parliament adopts report on EC proposal for a new Energy Tax Directive

On April 19 the EU Parliament adopted the report of Luxemburg’s MEP Astrid Lulling (EPP), and Swedish shadow Rapporteur, Olle Ludvigson (S&D)

..read more Updated 19 Apr, 2012

MEPs to vote on Energy Taxation Directive

MEPs will today vote  on the proposal for revision of the 2003 Energy Taxation Directive (ETD) following a report by Astrid Lulling (EPP, Luxembourg) in Strasbourg last night. The revision marks the introduction of CO 2 in the taxation of energy products and electricity and the end of the special status given to diesel fuel and unleaded petrol.   The proposal, presented by the European Commission in 2011, constitutes the response to the EU summit’s 2008 request to align the European Union’s energy and climate change objectives. Under the revision, taxation would be based not only on energy content but also on the CO 2 content of energy products, and would include a minimum level for CO 2. Member states will therefore have to make a clear distinction between the two components: taxation of CO 2 and taxation of the energy source. The text also provides for abolishing the reductions granted for diesel fuel for professional use as well as the preferential price for unleaded petrol. More generally, it does away with the existing distinction between commercial and private use of energy products to produce heat and electricity. While maintaining a degree of flexibility, including the possibility for member states to levy more than one tax on energy consumption, [...]

..read more Updated 19 Apr, 2012