Parliament adopts tyre labelling rules

ERJ staff report (DS)

Brussels -- The European Parliament in Strasbourg has adopted, with significant amendments, the draft legislation on tyre labelling with a large majority. The amended rules now go before the Council of Ministers for approval, unless further amendments are proposed, in which case, it will go before Parliament for a second reading.

A number of amendments were proposed and accepted into the final text of the rule.

First among these was the change from a directive to a regulation. This means the rule passes directly into EC law without national parliaments needed to pass their own regulations in each member State. Second, the tyre industry has argued successfully to insert a clause (in bold), saying, "Tyre manufacturers should be encouraged to optimise all parameters, without undercutting safety standards which have already been achieved.

Another amendment requests tyre makers to include on their websites a tool which allows consumers to calculate the financial and CO₂ cost of their decisions by use of calculators on respective websites.

Also, the tyre industry won its argument to permit snow tyres and Nordic winter tyres to be assessed 'on an equal footing' with normal tyres.

On the negative side, tyre makers are being 'encouraged' to comply with the regulation before its formal introduction in 2012.

The EU is being asked to set up a website, "which explains each of the components of the label - fuel efficiency, wet grip and noise emissions - and their relevance, and includes a fuel savings calculator which demonstrates average savings of fuel, CO₂ and costs." The site should be in operation before 2010

A number of other minor changes were made. Among them, the definition of a 'point of sale' does not now include warehouses and storage facilities.

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Press release from European Parliament

Link to final text from European Parliament