The draft amendment of the Environmental Protection Law gives the local authorities a possibility of determining the low emission zones. They are supposed to be divided into five classes corresponding to five types of vehicles which are going to receive some stickers during technical inspections. These labels will inform about the met norms concerning the exhaust emission. The higher class of a car, the further one may drive by it.
It is not a regulation concerning the no vehicular access of old cars to the cities – emphasizes minister Tomasz Arkit, an originator of the amendment. It is not the age of a car which will have a great importance but the norms of exhaust emission which are met by a vehicle. The local authorities will be gradually increasing their amount like in case of the 225 European cities where similar regulations were introduced. Firstly, the Euro 2 norm was introduced and after some years it was increased to a quite high norm – Euro 5. It is worth mentioning that the Euro 4 norm is met by a 10-year-old car using diesel and also by a 20-year-old car using petrol provided that it is well-exploited – points out the minister.
The works on the amendment are gathering pace. There is a chance that it will be in force in 2015. The regulations are supposed to concern the owners of cars and motorcycles. In which cities should the eco-zones be present?