REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the European Union (Reporting year 2016).

Abstract

Pursuant to Article 8(3) of Directive 98/70/EC1relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels (henceforth the "Fuel Quality Directive"), Member States are required to report annually information on the total volumes and the quality of petrol and diesel fuels sold for use in road transport. This report is based on the data submitted by Member States to the European Environment Agency (EEA)for the year 2016. The compilation and analysis of the data reported by Member States is presented in the EEA Technical report No 24/2017 on ‘Fuel quality in the EU in 2016’.Member States assess the quality of fuels through a Fuel Quality Monitoring System (FQMS)2. Member States must sample fuels each year and analyse their technical characteristics to ensure that they are consistent with the requirements of the Fuel Quality Directive. The limiting values set out by the Fuel Quality Directive concern parameters such as:•for petrol fuels: distillation value, hydrocarbon analysis, lead content, manganese content, motor octane number (MON), oxygen content, oxygenates, research octane number (RON), sulphur content and the vapour pressure for the summer period;•for diesel fuels: cetane number, density at 15 °C, distillation, fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) content, manganese content, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and sulphur content.