The Commission considers that the common position meets the aims of the Commission's initial proposal. The Commission therefore supports the text.
The negotiated Common Position is the result of inter-institutional negotiations as agreed at the final trialogue of 1 October 2009.
The main subjects of negotiation on which an agreement was reached are as follows:
Format of the proposal: the proposal is changed from a Directive into a Regulation on request of Parliament.
Advertising requirements: the definition of technical promotional literature is reworded in order to make clear that it does not include media advertising in general.
Display of the label: flexibility is introduced with regards to the display of the label. While Commission proposed that the label is mandatorily displayed at the point of sale by means of a sticker on each tyre, the negotiated amendment of Council/Parliament foresees that the label may be either displayed by means of a sticker on each tyre as proposed by the Commission or distributed in one printed copy per each batch of one or more identical tyres delivered at the point of sale; in that case it is requested in article 5 that the distributors show the printed label to the end-users before the sale of the tyre(s) at the point of sale.
Responsibilities of vehicle suppliers: the general obligation for vehicle producers to display the classification of tyres fitted on new vehicles is removed. The information requirement, under the agreement, will apply only to those tyres offered as option to end-users.
Market surveillance: a reference to Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 on market surveillance is introduced in as suggested in the Commission amended proposal in response to the Parliament's request for reinforced market surveillance rules.
Review clause: the review clause is shortened from 5 years in the original proposal to 40 months in order to assess the effectiveness and visibility of the labelling scheme.
Transitional provision: European Parliament and Council agreed to exempt tyres produced before July 2012 from the labelling requirements.
Promotion of low noise tyres (annex II): a classification of external rolling noise is added on the label in order to facilitate easy recognition of low noise tyres, in addition to the display of the external rolling noise measured value in decibels.
Website on tyre labelling information and harmonised fuel saving calculator: in order to facilitate agreement between the institutions, the Commission agreed to make the following statement at the Parliament's plenary session immediately before the final adoption of the proposal for a Regulation:
"The Commission supports the use of Community instruments such as the Intelligent Energy-Europe Programme to contribute to initiatives that raise end-users’ awareness of the benefits of tyre labelling. By June 2012, the Commission will make available, in particular to consumer organisations and tyre manufacturers on its ec.europa website, information explaining each of the components of the tyre label and a harmonised fuel savings calculator".