Clean Vehicles Directive

This briefing is one in a series of 'Implementation Appraisals' on the operation of existing EU legislation in practice. Each such briefing focuses on a specific EU law which is likely to be amended or reviewed, as foreseen in the European Commission's Annual Work Programme.

Implementation Appraisals aim to provide a succinct overview of material publicly available on the implementation, application and effectiveness of an EU law to date – drawing on available input from the EU institutions and external organisations. They are provided to assist parliamentary committees in their consideration of the new proposals, once tabled.According to a recent evaluation of the Clean Vehicles Directive performed by the European Commission, the directive seems to raise concerns about whether the incentives included in it actually reach their intended aim, notably to increase the demand for and deployment of cleaner vehicles.

Indeed, performing the evaluation was a complicated task, due to the significant data gaps that were found. This was particularly true when evaluating the implementation of the directive and its associated impacts, notably due to the lack of structural monitoring at EU or Member State level and the limited amount of published research and stakeholder positions available. Yet, regardless of the insufficient data, the directive appears to have had little impact with regard to incentivising a market uptake of clean vehicles and has therefore had a very limited impact on reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants emitted from publicly procured vehicles. Ultimately, the Commission decided to revise rather than withdraw the directive,

In this review process, the Commission would ensure that some appropriate reporting requirements are included in the directive. In addition, as there appear to be some barriers to the use of the monetisation methodology, the Commission would be able to consider to further develop the information available on the Clean Vehicle Portal and to provide contracting authorities with further guidance. Finally, the scope could be improved for making the directive more effective and efficient.

EP: EPRS: Briefing: Implementation Appraisal: Ex-ante Impact Assessment http://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/search.html?policyAreas=EXIMAS

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