Overview
During the month of October 2008, the European Council and the Parliament have adopted the new Directive on the Promotion of Clean and Energy Efficient Road Transport Vehicles. The European Commission had presented a revised proposal, COM(2007)817, on 19 December 2007, which was discussed in the European Institutions earlier this year. It is expected that a final text will be published in the Official Journal by the end of this year.
The finally adopted text pursues the same goals as a first proposal from the European Commission from 2005: on the one hand, the creation of a market for vehicles with alternative drive technologies and fuels; on the other, the Commission hopes to cut energy consumption, CO2 emissions and pollutant emissions.
The Directive will introduce environmental aspects into public procurement/purchase of road vehicles. The new text covers all road vehicles (such as police cars, buses, waste collection vehicles, etc.) procured/purchased by public authorities and by operators providing public transport services. When procuring/purchasing vehicles, public authorities as well as operators will be obliged to take into account lifetime costs for energy consumption, CO2 and pollutant emissions as award criteria. These life time costs will have to be calculated according to a methodology proposed by the European Commission. The application of environmental criteria for the procurement/purchase of vehicles will first be optional, then mandatory from around summer 2010 (18 months after the publication in the Official Journal).
The seminar will inform about the final outcome of the European legislation process and will give valuable information on how to interpret the criteria mentioned in the new proposal for the purchase/procurement of buses and other road vehicles used in public transport. Don’t miss it