Last November, the Commission put forward a proposal for a directive on labelling of tyres as part of the Second Strategic Energy Review package. In a record time, on 22 April, the European Parliament adopted, by large majority, the Commission proposal with amendments.
In fact, the European Parliament has adopted the proposal as an amended regulation. The Commission had proposed a directive which would have to be transposed into national law. According to the European Parliament a regulation is directly applicable in all member states hence the national transposition phase would be bypassed and tyres producers will have to comply entirely with the EU rules. The EU Member States would be unable to adapt the rules to their national circumstances.
The Commission has pointed out that the proposal for a Regulation on the general safety of motor vehicles will improve tyre rolling resistance, wet grip and external rolling noise by introducing new minimum requirements concerning those parameters. Furthermore, it has stressed that in order to reduce the environmental impact of road transport, to reduce traffic noise and to improve road safety it is necessary to introduce provisions to encourage end-users to buy more fuel efficient tyres. Hence, the scope of the proposal is to harmonise product information.
The draft directive requires tyre manufacturers to provide standardized label information on fuel efficiency, on wet grip and external rolling noise. The Commission has proposed a labelling scheme for tyre parameters including fuel efficiency, wet grip and external rolling noise, addressing C1, C2 and C3 tyres (tyres fitted on passenger cars, light and heavy-duty vehicles).
A label similar to the one attached to electrical appliances would be provided for tyres showing values in bands running from A (best) to G (worst) for rolling resistance, wet grip and a single value for noise. In order to reduce logistics costs the industry is not required to attach a sticker in all Community languages but to provide a label comprising pictograms which must be explained on a company’s website.
The Commission has stressed that “Tyre performances should be displayed at the point of sale by means of a sticker and on technical promotional literature such as catalogues, leaflets or web marketing.” The MEPs are in favour of such a labelling system. The European Parliament has voted for such information to be also included in the invoices of distributors.
The MEPs also introduced an obligation to include “a new "low noise mark", showing a tyre with earmuffs if the noise level is below 68 decibels (C1), 69 decibels (C2 tyres) or 70 decibels (C3 tyres).”
The European Parliament has called on the Commission to create by September 2010 an "EU tyre labelling website" which would be a “reference source of explanatory information for each component of the label.” Moreover, the MEPs have voted for suppliers to be required to provide a “fuel savings calculator” on their websites in order to allow consumers to make informed choices.
The Commission proposal requires such information to be provided in accordance with the harmonised testing methods laid down in the draft Regulation concerning type-approval requirements for the general safety of motor vehicles.
According to the Commission in order to avoid the fragmentation of the market it would be necessary to determine minimum fuel efficiency classes where Member States put in place incentives in favour of fuel-efficient tyres. The Commission is considering as a complementary option the use of economic instruments and public procurement. In fact, C1 tyres, band B or C might be set as the minimum level for public procurement. Under the draft proposal, Member States would be prohibited for granting incentives to below fuel efficiency class C tyres.
Lord Adonis, Minister of State, Department for Transport, has said to the European Scrutiny Committee that the Government finds this provision on national fiscal policy “inappropriate and unacceptable.” It should be recall that the draft proposal legal base is Article 95 EC which expressly excludes of its scope of application fiscal provisions.
Member States would be required to monitor manufacturers, suppliers and distributors compliance of the labelling provisions through market surveillance. In this way, the Commission proposal would require Member States to put in place monitoring procedures as well as to test tyres for compliance with the declared values on stickers. Lord Adonis has stressed that such provision may imposed a considerable cost burden on governments as well as it will duplicate tests on tyres that manufacturers are already required to conduct to demonstrate conformity of production under the type approval regime.
The Commission proposal also entails additional costs to tyres manufactures as they would be required to ensure that information on the rolling resistance, wet grip, and noise of all tyre options is available. Producers are likely to pass on these costs to consumers.
The proposal will introduce a mandatory tyre label from November 2012. The EU Member States are required to adopt by 1 November 2011 regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the Directive as well as penalties for non-compliance.
The proposal is going through the co-decision procedure with QMV required at the Council. It remains to be seen what will come out from the negotiations between the Council and the European Parliament. It seems unlikely that the Council will accept the European Parliament amendments.
