Europe: F-gases

A Common Position was formally adopted by the European Council on June 21 and published in the Official Journal of the European Union on July 26, 2005. The formal process for the 2nd Reading has begun. The Rapporteur, Avril Doyle, has produced her report on draft recommendations for the 2nd Reading. There will be a series of discussions and votes on suggested amendments in the Environment Committee in October before the approved amendments are expected to be put to the European Parliament at the 24-27 October Plenary session. The main amendments suggested by the Rapporteur are: - a single Environmental (Article 175) legal base for the Regulation, - a ban on the placing on the market of refrigeration systems with less than 150 g of charge, 2 years after the date of entry into force of the Regulation which is expected in 2007/2008. - applications defined in article 3 (refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps which contain fluorinated gases) would be "subject to controls for leakage" instead of "inspected for leakage"; this means that "the equipment or system is examined for leakage using direct measuring methods - focusing on those parts of the system likely to leak - or using indirect measuring methods focusing on the amount of refrigerant contained in the system".