The European Commission, EU’s executive arm, announced on Thursday that it decided to issue a reasoned opinion to Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom for failing to transpose EU rules on quality of petrol and diesel fuels into their national law.
The new rules were introduced by Council Directive (EU) 2015/652, which lays down norms to calculate and report the greenhouse gas emissions of fuels and other energy from non-biological sources.
“Member States had to implement EU rules on the calculation and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions of fuels into their national legislation by 21 April 2017. The Commission had already sent a letter of formal notice to these Member States in May 2017. If the concerned Member States fail to act within two months from the receipt of the reasoned opinion, the case may be referred to the Court of Justice of the EU,” European Comission said.
The directive aims to achieve at least a 6% reduction of the greenhouse gas intensity of the fuel and energy supplied by the end of 2020.
According to EU, the new calculation method has the advantage of reducing the administrative burden on both suppliers and member states.