Enhancement to EU-wide car label under consideration by European Commission

Mon 28 February 2005 View all news

The European Commission is currently considering which measures could be introduced to make the 1999 European Directive on environmental labelling more effective. The Commision has no plans, however, to include other environmental information in any enhancement of the labelling scheme.

The comments were given in a written answer to the European Parliament by Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas.

The European environmental labelling scheme for motor vehicles, under Directive 1999/94/EC , requires Member States to ensure that information relating to the fuel economy and carbon dioxide emissions of new passenger cars is available at the point of sale to enable consumers to make an informed choice. The label must be attached to, or displayed near, each new passenger car offered for sale.

The Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership has recently announced that the UK will introduce its own colour-coded environment label on an industry-wide voluntary basis from July 1st. The agreement was negotiated by motor industry, government, environment and other stakeholders under the auspices of LowCVP. The label represents an enhancement to the pre-existing statutory information required by the European Directive.

Related Links

LowCVP environment label press release



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