Tighter emission regulation for non-road mobile machinery

The European Parliament's Environment Committee today almost unanimously approved the final agreement reached with the Council on the proposal for a Regulation on requirements relating to emission limits and type-approval for internal combustion engines for non-road mobile machinery.

"Today's vote is the result of very hard work by the two co-legislators and is a significant step in the right direction. It is of the utmost importance since these engines contribute significantly to air pollution and are accountable for roughly 15% of NOx and 5% of PM emissions in the EU. Thanks to the results of the trilogue negotiations confirmed today, we have succeeded in striking the right balance between the protection of the environment, the health of EU citizens and the competiveness of the EU industry", said the European Parliament Rapporteur Elisabetta Gardini MEP.

The new non-road mobile machinery (NRMM) Regulation will cover all kinds of combustion engines installed in machines ranging from small hand-held equipment, construction machinery (like cranes), generating sets, railcars and locomotives, and inland waterway vessels to harvesting and agricultural machinery (like narrow tractors). The engines covered in the scope shall meet the same requirements regardless of their fuels, so as to boost innovation in the engine sector. A new in-service monitoring system has been set up to assess the engines' performance in real life which will fill the gap between engine laboratory testing and real world emissions.

“We have tightened the limits proposed by the European Commission even further for many engines' power ranges", said Gardini. “But we kept the approach reasonable enough so that the industry can comply with the new requirements in a short time - and this was the most important goal.”

The agreement also allows some more time for small and medium-sized enterprises to cope with the new requirements. “This is in line with the 'Think Small First' principle, which has guided the EU institutional work for many years”, added the Rapporteur.

“The new Regulation is very ambitious in terms of environmental protection”, Gardini emphasised. “Europe will have the strictest emission limits in the world as from 2019. The other two regulated markets, i.e Japan and the US, are lagging behind us. However, the Regulation provides for new transition clauses making it reasonable to introduce the new Stage V for those companies that will implement it in their businesses, especially small companies which are the backbone of our economy”, she concluded.