Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-07-02-Speech-3-271"
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"en.20030702.8.3-271"2
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"Mr President, I would like to start by contradicting what has just been said by Mr Fava, who was of the opinion that we are engaging in mock combat. I do not believe that to be the case; this was meant to be a debate. How are we to take the Alpine Convention as the basis for solving a problem that affects not only Austria? For some time, now, we have been holding a debate between little Austria and the European Union, and, although I do not, right now, want to apportion blame, we have been playing this out for long enough. Austrian governments have made mistakes, as has the European Union. I will not be able to persuade or convince you – it seems to be too late for that – but I would, all the same, like to give you a few more facts to consider before we take a decision tomorrow, taking as I do the view that we MEPs should come to our decisions on the basis of verifiable facts.
In 1996, we observed that our air quality measurements showed no reduction in the elements indicating high levels of nitrous oxide pollution, even though the threshold values prescribed for vehicles had become more stringent, and the emissions models had led us to expect a reduction of some 45%. These high levels of emissions, from heavy commercial vehicles in particular, aroused suspicions that this sector could be the source of the higher levels of emissions. A study was therefore carried out by the Technical University at Graz, which, it might be mentioned, also does work for the Commission as part of the Artemis programme. The results, which were markedly more exact than before, were published as part of an international study involving the best measurement laboratories in Europe.
Let me quote from the study’s final report: ‘It has been established that emissions from heavy commercial vehicles, especially of pollutants belonging to the NOx group, have hitherto been significantly underestimated. This applies to vehicles fitted with engines in European categories Euro 2 and Euro 3. When operating in actual traffic, these vehicles produce higher levels of emissions than the categories allocated to them would appear to indicate. An explanation of this is to be sought in the way in which the vehicle’s engine is deliberately programmed to function. The vehicles are engineered in such a way that they demonstrate lower emission levels at the points measured in the course of the test cycles for their type prescribed by law. At those operating points that are not tested in the test cycle for their type, but which are very definitely significant in actual driving, the vehicles produce the same emissions as, or even higher levels of them than, older engines’.
The reduction of NOx emissions is, of course, what the ecopoint systems’ rules – which I have never claimed to be exactly brilliant – are intended to do. What this study now shows us is that it can be established that there is no scientific basis for the reduction of the number of ecopoints logged per transit journey for Euro 2 and Euro 3 as against Euro 1.
When I asked Mr Caveri to include these facts, he referred me to his Amendment No 17, which simply says, ‘shall ensure that it is done correctly’, and, at the same time, explained that there was nothing he could do if the engines of HGVs were tweaked – and, if he is accusing Italian hauliers of doing that, now really has to be the time for him to explain himself."@en1
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