Car exhaust – Photo by Ruben de Rijcke
(STRASBOURG) – The European Commission and EU Member States need to act swiftly to improve car emissions tests and checks on new cars on EU roads, Euro-MPs said in recommendations voted on Tuesday.
The non-binding recommendations to the Commission and the Council also amend EU “type approval” rules to make environmental and safety testing more independent, with stricter oversight of cars already on the road.
A final report by the Parliament’s Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurement in the Automotive Sector (EMIS) shows that the Commission and Member States were aware more than a decade ago that diesel cars’ nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in laboratory tests differ markedly from those measured on the roads.
However, no national authority suspected or searched for “defeat devices” – they performed only standard type-approval tests – and neither did the Commission raise any suspicion.
After the emissions scandal broke in September 2015, the Commission expected the Member States to conduct the investigations but it did not press for additional action, say MEPs, while the Member States failed to penalise car manufacturers or to demand recalls of faulty cars.
The key recommendations to improve EU legislation and ensure it is enforced are that:
- all work on drafting on air quality and emissions legislation should be placed within the portfolio of a single Commissioner and Directorate-General, to improve oversight and focus,
- EU legislation on real driving emissions should be adopted swiftly, with tests covering a wide range of driving conditions, but also with non-predictable variations to detect illegal defeat devices,
- car buyers affected by the scandal should be financially compensated by the car manufacturers involved. The Commission should also propose rules for a collective harmonised EU redress system, strengthening consumer protection, and
- new type approval rules should be adopted as quickly as possible, to introduce new EU oversight of the system, with clearly defined responsibilities.
In a separate vote, Parliament approved changes to the EU executive’s draft law on type approval to improve control of the work done by testing centres and national authorities who approve vehicles for sale. Checks on cars already on the road should be stepped up and the Commission should get more oversight whether national authorities are doing their job and, in some cases, test cars itself.
Each year EU Member States would have to test at least 20% of the car models placed on the market in their country in the previous year, and fines imposed by the Commission on car manufacturers who falsify test results could be of 30,000 per vehicle, says the text. Penalty revenue should be used to support market surveillance, benefit affected consumers or for environmental protection, it adds.
The amended type approval proposal is now referred back to Parliament’s Internal Market Committee with a view to upcoming inter-institutional negotiations. The Council still needs to agree its position on this file before three-way talks (“trilogues”) with Parliament and Commission can start.
Further information, European Parliament
Steps of the procedure (2016/2908(RSP))
Steps of the procedure (2016/0014(COD))
Adopted texts (2016/2908(RSP) and 2016/0014(COD)) will be available here (04.04.2017)
Commission fact sheet – EU legislation on passenger car type approval and emissions standards
