The European Commission welcomes the adoption today by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers of a new directive on…
The European Commission welcomes the adoption today by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers of a new directive on recreational craft. This new directive, which amends the recreational craft directive (94/25/EC), extends its scope to include personal watercraft and complements its design and construction requirements with environmental standards in regard to exhaust and noise emission limit values for recreational craft. The new Directive succeeds in meeting both single market and environment protection needs, whilst sustaining competitiveness of the recreational craft manufacturing industry. Following the Parliament and Council agreement, these harmonised emission limits will take effect progressively, from 1 January 2005 to 1 January 2007. It is estimated that the yearly emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and various other pollutants from recreational craft within the EU will be reduced by over 50% once the limits are fully implemented.
Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said: I am pleased that the Parliament and the Council have supported our innovative proposal, which aims at combining environmental and industrial policy objectives in an internal market directive. The adoption of this directive will contribute to maintaining and enhancing the competitiveness of the European recreational marine industries by further removing possible technical barriers to trade, whilst at the same time ensuring that the environment and human health and safety remain adequately protected.
Over 95% of the 800,000 recreational craft produced each year world-wide are motor boats. These boats are frequently used in recreational areas in coastal zones and in lakes, where low ambient noise is often a significant but scarce natural resource. Furthermore, the use of these boats is largely concentrated during the summer period, leading to high levels of local air and water pollution caused by their exhaust gases. To reduce this negative environmental impact, the Commission proposed in October 2000 to amend Directive 94/25/EC with a view to limiting emissions of air pollutants and noise originating from such craft.
The new Directive also requires the European Commission to study the possibilities of further improving the environmental characteristics of recreational craft engines. The Commission will submit a report on its findings by the end of 2006, and if appropriate, submit legislative proposals to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers by the end of 2007.
In addition, the amending directive introduces a number of modifications to the basic requirements of Directive 94/25/EC, with the aim of further enhancing the free movement of recreational craft and their components within the internal market.
These modifications extend the scope of the Directive to personal watercraft, and provide for an extended range of conformity assessment modules leaving a wider choice to boat and engine manufacturers to demonstrate that their products comply with the design and construction requirements of the Directive.
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