Brussels, 15/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament will vote in February, not on 19 January as originally scheduled, on the motion to reject any lowering of car emissions standards when new real driving emissions tests for road vehicles are introduced in the EU (second RDE package).
The decision was taken by the Conference of Group Presidents on Thursday 14 January, much to the annoyance of the Greens/EFA Group which, in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, wanted to strike while the iron was still hot in the hope that the highly controversial proposal, on which agreement was reached between the Council and the Commission, would be rejected. The proposal would permit an increase of 110% in the emission limit values for nitrogen oxides from diesel engines.
Just one month ago, Parliament's environment committee called on the plenary session in January to object to this decision which would allow car makers to continue to manufacture and market cars until 2019 which produce pollution of up to twice the limit values required by current legislation (see EUROPE 11454).
Greens/EFA joint leader Rebecca Harms is furious, seeing in the delay machinations to try “to prevent this fundamentally-flawed driving emissions test procedure from being rejected” and fearing that the delay will be used by the car lobby to further its own ends. “This may be in the interest of some laggards in the car industry but it is clearly not in the interest of Europe's citizens, who are suffering the consequences of the EU's lax approach to air pollution. We hope that MEPs will not be swayed by the automobile lobby during the postponement”, she raged.
Netherlands Environment Minister Sharon Dijksma, speaking for the Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU, told the environment committee on 14 January that she was ready to open trialogue negotiations on this issue, immediately after Parliament decides its position (see EUROPE 11468). (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)