ALTERNATIVE FUELS : COUNCIL ADOPTS FALL-BACK POSITION ON INFRASTRUCTURES.

It looks as though no more will be heard about a proposal to impose the mandatory installation, by 2020, of eight million charging stations for electric cars in the EU. The Transport Council, meeting in Brussels on 5 December, decided to eliminate all such infrastructure requirements from the future directive on alternative fuels. This infrastructure includes not only charing points for electric cars, but also hydrogen, compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuelling stations.

Back in January, the European Commission published a very ambitious text obliging member states to deploy this infrastructure in order to "give a signal to the industry". It provided that every member state should have a minimum number of charging stations for electric cars by 31 December 2020 (1.5 million in Germany, almost a million in France, 1.2 million in Italy). LNG stations should be available every 400 km along major European routes (every 150 km for CNG stations). Furthermore, LNG stations should be installed at all the main EU maritime ports by 2020, and at all EU river ports by 2025.

However, all these objectives have now been dropped. Only the obligation for member states to adopt national plans - in which they themselves decide on the action they will take regarding alternative fuels, and once again this means indicative objectives - between now and 2030 (ten years after the original deadline) remains in the general position adopted by the Council. These objectives will be sent to the Commission, which will compile and publish them.

The vast majority of member states considered that there was no need for the EU to impose minimum requirements, and that the deadlines proposed were too tight. Only a handful of countries regretted this step back. France expressed its "strong concern for electro-mobility," which "merits a more convincing signal from Europe at a time when the major competing third countries are equipped with voluntary programmes". French...