Brussels, 10/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - Having approved the placing on the market of vehicles which did not comply with European rules on greenhouse gases, Germany was referred by the Commission to the Court of Justice of the European Union on Thursday 10 December.
Germany authorised the sale of cars by manufacturer Daimler AG which were in breach of Directive 2006/40/EC on mobile air conditioning, known as the MAC directive, which prescribes the use of refrigerants with less global warming potential and the phasing out of certain fluorinated greenhouse gases.
The MAC directive stipulates that air conditioning systems in motor vehicles type-approved after 1 January 2011 may not be filled with fluorinated greenhouse gases with a global warming potential (GWP) higher than 150. This means that the use of refrigerant R-134a is not permitted and only refrigerant R1234yf is allowed for newly type-approved motor vehicles in the EU. Daimler, however, type-approved vehicles using R-134a in contravention of EU law.
Under Directive 2007/46/EC, which sets out the general framework for car type-approvals and provides a range of remedial actions, type-approval authorities “have the obligation to certify that a vehicle meets all EU safety, environmental and production requirements - including those on mobile air-conditioning systems - before authorising it to be placed on the EU market”, the Commission says.
The German authorities did not ask Daimler to recall its vehicles and to make the necessary technical adaptations to ensure full compliance with the MAC directive. Furthermore, in May 2013, the German type-approval authorities accepted the request from Daimler AG to type approve new vehicles under an existing type approval, which had been granted before the MAC directive came into force. Daimler invoked safety concerns with regard to the use of refrigerants prescribed by the MAC directive. These concerns were rejected by Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, KBA) and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)