The Czech Republic and its allies reject the current draft of the EURO 7 standard and seek to change1/6/2023|Press releasesTogether with France, Italy, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Poland, the Czech Republic rejects the current wording of the draft EURO 7 emission standard and advocates significant changes to the text. The EU transport ministers were informed about this today at their meeting by minister Martin Kupka who presented a document summarising the most important objections to the European Commission's proposal. The pool of critical states is calling for a delay in the effect date of the entire standard and a significant modification of its key parameters. The Czech Republic is also seeking support for a common position paper from other EU countries. "When the European Commission introduced the EURO 7 standard last November, we were the first to clearly describe how the standard is unfeasible and why it poses a threat to the European car industry and consumers. We also started organising other countries to support our position. Since then, there have been a number of joint meetings, such as the meeting of transport ministers in Strasbourg, which have created a strong alliance for a more sensible EURO 7. I am happy to see that we have managed to build a strong alliance for a more reasonable EURO 7. There is a clear alliance of states that have a blocking minority and can thus prevent the adoption of the current form of the standard. However, we want to get other countries on our side and push through the necessary changes," said transport minister Martin Kupka. The following particular changes are requested in the common position paper: Any new exhaust emission rules (including new testing requirements or new emission limits) for cars and vans should be removed, because they could jeopardise the European car industry's targets to ban the sale of new combustion engines after 2035. The effect date of the standard must be postponed: for passenger cars at least by three 3 years from the adoption of the last implementing regulation and for heavy goods vehicles the preparation time should be at least 5 years. The requirements for heavy goods vehicles do not match the current state of technology and should be relaxed. In addition, the heavy goods vehicle segment includes different types of vehicles and it is necessary that the emission standard reflects the specifics of every vehicle category. The powers of the European Commission to adopt secondary legislation must be clearly delimited and defined. It is the implementing regulations that are essential, because they will define the actual wording of the emissions standard. Consistency must be ensured between the objectives of the new emissions standard and EU's commitment to end the sale of new combustion engine vehicles after 2035. In its current form, the EURO 7 emissions standard would undermine efforts to make transport more environmentally friendly. The signatory countries are also seeking clearer specification and discussion on other parts of the proposal. The current shape of the On-Board-Monitoring system or the so-called measurement boundary conditions, which should stipulate that the vehicle should meet the same emission limits regardless of whether it is driving on the motorway, in the city or with a trailer in the winter in an alpine pass, appear to be problematic. "All these ideas would lead to one thing only: that a new car would become an unaffordable luxury for the average citizen. Sales of small and affordable cars would end, car companies would have to close factories, thousands of people would end up out of work. We must prevent all this and fundamentally change the EURO 7 standard," said minister Kupka. Negotiations on the final draft of the emissions standard are still ongoing. The legislative process is therefore at the very beginning. "We can now win the support of other countries for a reasonable EURO 7 variant. Our hard work during recent months shows that the Czech Republic's reservations are constructive and well-founded and are thus gaining a positive response from other partners," Kupka concludes.