Before the European Union began streamlining emissions standards, there were several differing sets of rules. Members of the European Economic Community (EEC) had a unified set of rules, considerably more lax than those of the United States or Japan. These were tightened gradually, beginning on cars of over two liters displacement as the price increase would have less of an impact in this segment.[1] The ECE 15/05 norms (also known as the Luxemburg accord, strict enough to essentially require catalytic converters) began taking effect gradually: the initial STEP applied to cars of over 2000 cc in two stages, in October 1988 and October 1989.[2] There followed cars between 1.4 and 2.0 liters, in October 1991 and then October 1993. Cars of under 1400 cc had to meet two subsequent sets of regulations that applied in October 1992 and October 1994 respectively.[6] French and Italian car manufacturers, strongly represented in the small car category, had been lobbying heavily against these regulations throughout the 1980s.[7]Within the EEC, Germany was a leader in regulating automobile emissions. Germany gave financial incentives to buyers of cars that met US or ECE standards, with lesser credits available to those that partially fulfilled the requirements. These incentives had a strong impact; only 6.5 percent of new cars registered in Germany in 1988 did not meet any emissions requirements and 67.3 percent were compliant with the strictest US or ECE standards.[1]Sweden was one of the first countries to instill stricter rules (for 1975), placing severe limitations on the number of vehicles available there. These standards also caused drivability problems and steeply increased fuel consumption - in part because manufacturers could not justify the expenditure to meet specific regulations that applied only in one very small market. In 1982, the European Community calculated that the Swedish standards increased fuel consumption by 9 percent, while it made cars 2.5 percent more EXPENSIVE.[8] For 1983 Switzerland (and then Australia) joined in the same set of regulations, which gradually increased the number of certified engines.[9] One problem with the strict standards was that they did not account for catalyzed engines, meaning that vehicles thus equipped had to have the catalytic converters removed before they could be legally registered.In 1985 the first catalyzed cars entered certain European markets such as Germany. At first, the availability of unleaded petrol was limited and sales were small. In Sweden, catalyzed vehicles became allowed in 1987, benefitting from a TAX rebate to boost sales.[10] By 1989 the Swiss/Swedish emissions rules were tightened to the point that non-catalyzed cars were no longer able to be sold. In early 1989 the BMW Z1 was introduced, only available with catalyzed engines. This was a problem in some places like Portugal, where unleaded fuel was still almost non-existent, although European standards required unleaded gasoline to be "available" in every country by 1 October 1989.[11]