Brussels, 12/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - MEPs on the European Parliament's environment and health committee say that it is unacceptable for the EU, in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal to have decided to raise the upper limit on nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx) for real driving conditions tests (RDE).
They made this clear during a lively debate on Tuesday 10 November about the first package of rules on car emissions testing in real driving conditions (the 'RDE package') that was given the go-ahead by the Council of the EU the same day, following approval on 28 October by member states' experts on the technical committee for motor vehicles (see separate article).
They are so indignant that they may well invite the European Parliament to object to this highly controversial decision, seen as offering an official premium to car manufacturers guilty of cheating that damages human health and the environment (see EUROPE 11427)
“Not only did the Volkswagen scandal undermine the trust that consumers placed in our car industry, but it also casts doubt on the EU's capacity to enforce established standards. In this regard, what is now proposed by the Commission and member states for the so-called 'conformity factors' send the message that we are complacent with polluters in times when consumers feel cheated,” said the environment committee chair, Giovanni La Via. He added: “When so-called comitology powers are delegated to the Commission - the EU executive - by co-legislators, this is in order to deal with the technical aspects of legislation. What is now on the table clearly goes beyond that. This is not a technical but a political proposal.”
“Initially, the European Commission proposed a conformity factor of 1.18, as a tolerance, linked to the uncertainty of the tests. In the comitology process, it has gone up to 1.5, which is equivalent to delaying emissions targets that we agreed upon back in 2007. That should be unacceptable for any political group,” said Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Belgium). He added that it was outrageous that the EU's response to the scandal should be a weakening of existing legislation. He said the EP should reject this new regulatory gift to the polluting car lobby and the Commission should go back and change its proposals.
Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany) said that the proposed conformity factors would take us back to Euro 5 levels. “What is the European Commission doing to protect the treaties? If they are not implemented, laws are just a dead letter,” he explained.
“If I steal five apples a week, get caught by the police and promise in the future to steal only three apples a week, would this be a huge improvement according to the European Commission?” asked Gerben Jan Gerbrandy (ALDE the Netherlands), irritated by this premium awarded to air polluters.
Julie Girling (ECR, United Kingdom) said: “We have a less than ideal deal on the table. However, I would like us to go ahead with the new test procedure. What we need is new technologies on the street, and people breathing decent air.”
On behalf of the European Commission, Gwenole Cozigou, director general of DG Growth, argues that the upper limits for NOx had been considerably tightened since 2010 and the new RDE procedure would make it possible to reduce the risk of emissions being manipulated by defeat mechanisms. He said the wording of the agreement was necessarily the result of a compromise, but in the absence of any agreement, fraudulent practices will continue.
The draft proposal will be submitted to the European Parliament on 23 November. Under the comitology procedure, the EP has scrutiny rights and can object to a proposal if it finds it is far removed from the objective sought by the initial legislation, in this case the Euro 5/Euro 6 directive to restrict air pollution from cars. The Greens/EFA group has already said that it is planning to pressurise the EP to object to this highly controversial proposal and win as much support as possible from the political groupings to make an objection possible (for which it would need an absolute majority, in other words 376 votes). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)