EU court confirms limits on fuel additive MMT

09 July 2010 16:48  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--The European Court of Justice has upheld EU limits on gasoline additive MMT (methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl) against a challenge from producer Afton Chemical, it said in a ruling on Friday.

The Court said that Afton claimed the limits imposed by the EU Directive 2009/30/EC from 23 April 2009 were so stringent that they amounted to a de facto ban.

Additionally, Afton had said the imposition of limits for MMT content was the result of “a manifest error of assessment of the facts” by the European Council and the European Parliament, and that the limits were “unworkable and arbitrary”.

However, the court held that the Council and Parliament had taken into account scientific documents and studies in their legislative procedures, and as such had properly exercised their discretion under EU law.

“Parliament and the Council did not make a manifest error of assessment in deciding to set a limit for the MMT content of fuel,” it said.

The court added that setting the MMT limits was in line with the EU’s precautionary principle in legislating environmental and health matters.

Furthermore, the court said that imposing the limits on MMT was not discriminatory, since the limits applied to the whole of the European Union and to all producers and importers of MMT, not just Afton.

Also, a number of EU members, including Germany, had already banned MMT in fuel, the court added.

Media officials at Afton’s head offices in Richmond, Virginia, did not return a call requesting comment.

On its website, Afton described MMT as a safe additive used by over 150 refiners in 45 countries. Afton is part of petroleum additives producer NewMarket, which is also parent of Ethyl Corporation.

The court’s detailed ruling was available on its website.

In 1998, Canada withdrew a ban on MMT and settled a Nafta case brought against it by Ethyl.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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