Opinion on the Proposal for a Decision amending Directives 2009/12/EC, 2009/33/EC and (EU) 2022/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 96/67/EC as regards certain reporting requirements in the fields of road transport and aviation (2023/0362(COD))

25.1.2024

Ms Karima Delli

Chair of TRAN Committee

SPINELLI 08G305

BRUSSELS

Subject: Opinion on the Proposal for a Decision amending Directives 2009/12/EC, 2009/33/EC and (EU) 2022/1999 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Council Directive 96/67/EC as regards certain reporting requirements in the fields of road transport and aviation (2023/0362(COD))

Dear Chair,

On 17 October 2023, the Commission published a legislative proposal to amend several Directives, including Directive 2009/33/EC on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles.

On 20 November 2023, the ENVI coordinators decided to provide an opinion on the legislative proposal in the form of a letter. The ENVI Committee considered the matter at its meeting of 24 January 2024 and adopted this opinion at that meeting.

Directive 2009/33/EC sets minimum procurement targets for clean vehicles, expressed as minimum percentages of clean vehicles in the total number of road transport vehicles covered by contracts awarded during two reference periods. In respect of Directive 2009/33/EC, the Commission proposes reducing the frequency of Member States’ reporting under Directive 2009/33/EC from every three years to every five years.

The ENVI Committee agrees with the Commission’s rationale on Directive 2009/33/EC. Requiring Member States to report clean vehicle procurement data every five years, subsequent to each reference period, is justified. The proposal aims to minimise reporting frequency and thereby alleviates the administrative load on national administrations.

In proposing an amendment to Article 10 of Directive 2009/33/EC, the Commission has focused on the modification of the first sentence, seeking to replace the term “three” with “five” years. However, upon careful consideration, it appears that a temporal misalignment exists in the second sentence of the same paragraph. The current language mandates that the report accompanying these directives aligns with reports generated under two other directives, which stipulate a three-year reporting cycle. Against this background, the following technical adjustment should be made to Article 2 of the Commission Proposal:

“Article 2

Amendments to Directive 2009/33/EC

Article 10 of Directive 2009/33/EC is amended as follows:

(1) in paragraph 2, the first sentence is replaced by the following:

‘By 18 April 2026, and every five years thereafter, Member States shall submit a report on the implementation of this Directive to the Commission. Those reports shall accompany the reports provided for in the second subparagraph of Article 83(3) of Directive 2014/24/EU and the second subparagraph of Article 99(3) of Directive 2014/25/EU, and they shall contain information on the measures taken to implement this Directive, on future implementation activities, as well as any other information which the Member State considers relevant. Those reports shall also include the number and the categories of vehicles covered by the contracts referred to in Article 3(1) of this Directive, based on the data provided by the Commission in accordance with paragraph 3 of this Article. The information shall be presented on the basis of the categories set out in Regulation (EC) No 2195/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council.’

(2) paragraph 4 is replaced by the following:

‘4. By 18 April 2027, and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of this Directive, specifying the measures taken by Member States in this regard, following the reports referred to in paragraph 2.’”

Moreover, in line with the above change, recital 6 of the Commission Proposal should be amended as follows:

“In order to reduce administrative burdens and rationalise the reporting schedule, it is appropriate to reduce the frequency of Member States’ reporting under Directive 2009/33/EC, and fully align it with the five-year reference periods provided for in that Directive. Given this change in the reporting frequency, it is no longer appropriate to provide that such reporting accompanies the reports referred to in Article 83(3), second subparagraph, of Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 99(3), second subparagraph, of Directive 2014/25/EU, which both provide for a three-year reporting. As the Commission’s reporting to the European Parliament and the Council builds on national reports from Member States, the frequency of that reporting should also be adapted accordingly.”

Should the Council opt to amend these parts of the proposal in a different way, the ENVI Committee insists that it is involved during the inter-institutional negotiations.

Yours sincerely,

Pascal Canfin

ANNEX: entities or persons

from whom the rapporteur for the OPINION has received input

The Rapporteur for the opinion declares under his exclusive responsibility that he did not receive input from any entity or person to be mentioned in this Annex pursuant to Article 8 of Annex I to the Rules of Procedure.