European Commission proposes clean vehicle procurement law
Sat 05 January 2008
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All public authorities in the EU would be forced to consider the lifetime cost of pollution emissions and fuel consumption when procuring road vehicles under draft legislation tabled by the European Commission in December.
The proposed Directive introduces environmental aspects into public procurement of vehicles and transport services. It covers vehicles procured by public authorities and by operators providing public transport services. When procuring vehicles, public authorities will use lifetime costs for CO2 and pollutant emissions as well as for fuel consumption as award criteria.
Existing EU procurement rules state that procurement decisions should be taken based either on the lowest price or the "economically most advantageous" offer. The application of the new criteria will first be optional, then mandatory from 2012.
The proposal revises a previous Directive from December 2005 on the promotion of clean vehicles.
Quoting a study by consultants PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the commission estimates that the proposed law could save up to 1.9m tonnes of CO2 emissions annually by 2017, equivalent to 0.5 per cent of total EU transport emissions. By the same year, vehicle purchase costs would increase by some €11.5bn, but would be more than offset by fuel savings of €21.3bn and avoided emissions worth nearly €12bn
Commission Vice-President Jacques Barrot who is in charge of transport, said: "The growing efforts of public authorities to promote clean and energy efficient vehicles need to be supported at European level by guaranteeing manufacturers the same market rules all over the European Union."
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