A Commission proposal to promote clean and energy-efficient road transport by obliging public authorities to consider not only the cost, but the environmental impact, of the vehicles that they plan to purchase was backed by the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety on Tuesday. MEPs want the "green award" environmental criteria, including fuel costs, to become mandatory as soon as 2010, but also to exclude certain vehicles from the proposal.

The Commission proposal would require all public procurers to consider not only the purchase price of vehicles but also their environmental impacts (lifetime costs for fuel, CO2 emissions and air pollution), and to use them as a criterion for purchase. It introduces "a harmonised and monetised method for clean and energy-efficient vehicle procurement for public transport".

Given that the total annual vehicle procurement by public authorities in the EU is estimated at 110,000 passenger cars, 110,000 light commercial vehicles, 35,000 lorries and 17,000 buses for the EU, the new proposal is expected to ensure a sufficiently substantial demand for clean and energy-efficient vehicles to prompt industry to develop and invest in environmentally-friendly vehicles. Total procurement of vehicles by public bodies accounts for some 16% of EU GDP.

Award criteria mandatory from 2010

MEPs want the environmental criteria and their anticipated benefits to come into effect as soon as possible. They therefore stipulate that from 1 January 2010, two years earlier than the Commissions proposal, all public procurement of road transport vehicles by contracting authorities or contracting entities should comply with the criteria defined in the proposal. MEPs also want Member States to be able to apply more stringent award criteria. Specific existing local practices with the same aim may also be taken into account.

Used vehicles to be excluded, retrofitting with engines and replacement parts to be included

MEPs say the award criteria should be mandatory only for new vehicles. Vehicles used to provide "operational support" or maintain infrastructure, as well as ambulances, fire and rescue vehicles and highly specialized vehicles should all be excluded from the directive. On the other hand, if public authorities want to retrofit vehicles with engines and replacement parts they should be asked to apply the same criteria as if purchasing a new car, unless the vehicles concerned have exceeded 75% of their total mileage.

New "clean and energy efficient label" and "European Climate Protection Fund" to come

The committee proposes that local, regional and national authorities that procure clean and energy-efficient vehicles accounting for at least 75% of their annual specific procurement needs should be allowed to use the label "clean and energy efficient urban road transport". To enhance transparency, the Commission is asked to establish a scoreboard for benchmarking relatively similar cities and regions and comparing the environment-friendliness of their procurement practices. Finally, the Commission is asked to develop a "European Climate Protection Fund" to encourage the purchase of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles.

Background

In June 2006, the Environment Committee rejected a similar Commission proposal. The new proposal incorporates several of the committee's requests, e.g. on the proposal's scope, technology neutrality and the inclusion of CO2 emissions.