Disagreement over scope for EU petrol vapour law

Shadow rapporteurs in the parliament’s environment committee have sided with the European commission over the scope of an EU draft law requiring petrol stations to install vapour recovery systems for all passenger cars.

Greek rapporteur Dimitrios Papadimoulis says the proposed rules should apply to all stations selling over 2,000 cubic metres of fuel per year. But on Monday other MEPs in the committee argued such a threshold would hurt stations in rural areas that draw many motorists. The commission, which proposes a 3,000m3 threshold, shares these concerns.

MEPs also debated a minimum capture efficiency level that Mr Papadimoulis wants to raise to 95 per cent from the commission’s 85 per cent, and whether the rules should come into force by 2020 or 2015 as proposed by the rapporteur. But there was no clear support for or against any of these proposals.