Since the objectives of this Directive, namely ensuring a single market for fuel for road transport and non-road mobile machinery and ensuring respect for minimum levels of environmental protection from use of this fuel cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty.

4. Notwithstanding paragraph 2, Member States which introduce a system of road user charges for motor vehicles or articulated vehicle combinations intended exclusively for the carriage of goods by road may apply a reduced rate on gas oil used by such vehicles, that goes below the national level of taxation in force on 1 January 2003, as long as the overall tax burden remains broadly equivalent, provided that the Community minimum levels are observed and that the national level of ...[+++]taxation in force on 1 January 2003 for gas oil used as propellant is at least twice as high as the minimum level of taxation applicable on 1 January 2004.

In so doing, the Commission shall take into account the importance of the emissions from this sector, the overall environmental and health benefits, the implications in the Member States regarding fuel distribution and the costs and benefits of a more restrictive sulphur level than is currently required for fuel used in compression ignition engines in non-road applications, and shall then align appropriate fuel quality requirements for non-road applications with the on-road sector by a certain date, currently expected to be 1 January 2009, to be confirmed or amended by the Commission in its review in 2005.

The reduction concerns biodiesel, a fuel made from biomass within the meaning of Article 2(b) of Directive 2001/77/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market , or made from used fried oils, to be used as a road fuel.

The European Commission has already proposed measures including an EC-wide emissions trading system, a strategy to increase the use of alternative road fuels and improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings and will come forward with a range of additional measures in the next two years.

The action plan for the promotion of alternative fuels and biofuels in road transport concentrates policy efforts on the promotion of biofuels, natural gas and hydrogen.