The European Parliament adopted by 493 to 145 votes with 25 abstentions a resolution on emission measurements in the automotive sector.
Recalling the notice of violation of the pollution rules issued against Volkswagen in the United States, Parliament strongly condemned any fraud by automobile manufacturers and urged companies to take full responsibility for their actions and to cooperate fully with the authorities in any investigations. It demanded that where defeat devices were found, Member State authorities take all necessary action to remedy the situation and apply the appropriate sanctions in accordance with Directive 2007/46/EC and Regulation (EC) No 715/2007. It recalled that the automotive industry was one of the key contributors to growth and innovation, and contributed to employment in a significant number of Member States. Unless decisive actions were taken, the present scandal risked undermining the reputation and competiveness of the whole sector.
Consumers and employees: Members deplored the fact that millions of consumers had been deceived and misled by false information regarding emissions from their vehicles. They emphasised its solidarity with the employees concerned, and were worried about the impact along the supply chain, especially on SMEs, which currently were innocently facing huge challenges caused by the fraud. Members stressed that employees should not ultimately be the ones who pay the price for emission measurement manipulation.
Investigations: Parliament welcomed the investigations being undertaken in several Member States and other countries globally regarding vehicle emissions test results manipulation. It supported the Commission’s call to national surveillance authorities to proceed with extensive checks on a wide variety of makes and models of vehicles. Any such investigation should involve the Commission and be conducted in a transparent and effective manner. Members demanded that the Commission report back to Parliament on the results of these investigations, in writing, by 31 March 2016.
Real Driving Emissions test cycle: Parliament urged the Commission to adopt and implement the new Real Driving Emissions test cycle without any further delay, and to bring it into force for regulatory purposes. It noted that according to the Commission’s current plans, the Real Driving Emissions tests would be used only for NOx emissions, but Members called for the RDE tests to be implemented for all pollutants. Members also welcomed the report on the reduction of pollutant emissions from road vehicles adopted by Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety on 23 September 2015, and in particular the requirement that the Commission ‘introduce a real driving emissions test for all vehicles type-approved or registered from 2015 to ensure the effectiveness of emission control systems.
Type-approval: recalling that the current EU type-approval regime did not allow the Commission or other Member States’ authorities to reassess vehicles’ type approvals or certificates of conformity, to recall vehicles or to suspend their placement on the market if they were type-approved by another Member State, Parliament called on the Commission to redesign the current regime in order to guarantee that type approvals and certificates by national competent authorities could be checked independently and reassessed by the Commission, if appropriate. It stated that it was of utmost importance that the Commission and all Member State competent authorities had the right to reassess type approval and certificates of conformity, to require recalls and stop the placing on the market of vehicles when they had evidence of non-compliance with the EU emissions limit values under the Euro 5 and 6 Regulation or any other requirement provided for by the type-approval regime.
Parliament also considered that the upcoming review of the Type Approval Framework Directive must consider expanding and specifying the conformity-of-production requirements in order to ensure that a sufficient and representative sample of new models taken off production lines at random are tested on an annual basis, using RDE tests to check their compliance with EU pollutant and CO2 limit values. Furthermore, Members wanted to see improved in-service testing of vehicles already in use on the road, also on the basis of the RDE procedure, in order to verify the in-service conformity of vehicles at different mileages as required under the regulation. They called for the improvement of on-road surveillance through periodic technical inspections to identify and repair vehicles which are found not to be in compliance with EU law.
EU-level surveillance authority: Parliament called for consideration to be given to the establishment of an EU-level surveillance authority as part of the need to significantly strengthening the current EU type-approval regime, including greater EU oversight, in particular as regards the market surveillance, coordination and follow-up regime for vehicles sold in the Union, the power to require Member States to launch control procedures based on evidence, and the ability to adopt appropriate measures in the event of breaches of EU law.
In-lab testing: lastly, Parliament called on national authorities to show no tolerance towards ‘vehicle testing optimisation’, whereby practices such as the over-inflation of tyres, the removal of side-mirrors, taping up of gaps between body panels to reduce aerodynamic drag, the use of special engine and gearbox lubricants that were otherwise not used in engines, the removal of auxiliary equipment such as stereos, and testing at the maximum allowed ambient temperature are common, thus unacceptably accentuating the difference between in-lab testing and the consumer’s experience on the road.