Before the European Union began streamlining emissions standards, there were several different sets of rules. Members of the European Economic Community (EEC) had a unified set of rules, considerably laxer 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. 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. 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. French and Italian car manufacturers, strongly represented in the small car category, had been lobbying heavily against these regulations throughout the 1980s.