Euro 5 diesel block postponed to 2027, green light in the Chamber: what changes

The exemption approved by the government was necessary to avoid a heavy economic impact on the four regions of the Po Valley area, a territory that combines a high industrial concentration with a geological conformation that favors the accumulation of fine particles (PM10).

Following the postponement granted by law, the four administrations moved according to different logics to manage their respective Air Protection Plans. Lombardy is the only one to have confirmed the structural stop on weekdays (from Monday to Friday) for large urban centers such as Milan, Brescia, Bergamo and Monza, adapting the Council's resolution to postpone the application of sanctions to the autumn of 2027. On the contrary, Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna have chosen to reset the automatic block, replacing it with alternative compensatory measures such as scrapping incentives, the strengthening of public transport and the seasonal postponement turning on the heating.

For motorists who reside in the Centre, the South or the Islands and who drive a Euro 5 diesel, the limitations do not follow a regional provision but depend exclusively on the regulations of the individual Municipalities, given that there is no general ban on motorways or extra-urban state roads. In Rome, for example, Euro 5 vehicles are currently saved from permanent blocks within the Fascia Verde ZTL, an area where petrol cars up to Euro 3 and diesel cars up to Euro 4 remain banned. For Euro 5 engines in the capital the risk of stopping is limited to temporary stops decreed during ecological Sundays or on days of strong weather and environmental alert, a situation similar to that of other central-southern cities, where the mayors intervene only with contingent and urgent ordinances during peak periods of winter pollution.

For those who live in regions subject to long-term limitations, the possibility of joining the MoVe-In (Polluting Vehicle Monitoring) system remains active, the technological platform already adopted in Lombardy, Piedmont, Veneto and Emilia-Romagna. The mechanism involves the installation of a black box on board the car: the driver renounces free circulation in ordinary time slots in exchange for a fixed annual mileage limit. For the Euro 5 category, this threshold stands on average at 10 thousand kilometers per year, a solution designed to allow occasional use of the car without exposing oneself to the risk of administrative sanctions.

The Chamber's decision does not represent an ecological amnesty for the entire obsolete car fleet. In fact, all structural bans and permanent limitations established for the most polluting vehicles remain fully operational. Euro 0, Euro 1 and Euro 2 petrol and diesel cars remain affected by permanent blockages within the urban centers of most Italian municipalities. Euro 3 and Euro 4 diesels continue to be subject to seasonal or structural blockages on weekdays, unless the MoVe-In system exemption is used in Northern regions that allow it. For Euro 6 vehicles, recent petrol models and hybrid or electric cars, circulation generally remains free everywhere, subject to some restrictive local exceptions such as those provided for in Area B of Milan. The postponement to 2027 essentially offers a twelve-month margin to allow families to plan the transition to more modern engines.