Brussels, 26/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - There are a number of novel points that are expected to be presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 27 January to revise the vehicle type approval system. The Commissioner for Industry, Elzbieta Bienkowska, is looking at the possibility of a fee system that would be collected by member states to directly finance type approval tests instead of those by manufacturers and monitoring activities, according to an explanatory note obtained by EUROPE (see EUROPE 11471).
In an interview published on 25 January, the Commissioner informed the German daily newspaper Schleswig-Holstein Zeitungsverlag (SHZ), “The European Commission has learned the lessons (of the Volkswagen scandal, Ed). We will now rectify the shortcomings and strengthen the monitoring conditions”. One of the lessons drawn involves the independence of the approval type authorities and, more generally, the rectifying the opaque relationship prevailing between automobile manufacturers, test laboratories and the type approval authorities.
The Commission therefore intends to propose a fee-paying system that will be paid by member states and directly fund laboratory tests. Currently, it is the automobile manufacturers that refund these laboratories for the tests and costs for the monitoring activities. These fees would also help cover any additional costs of the Commission for assuring its monitoring and inspection activities.
Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France) informed EUROPE that “at the moment, the project remains rather unclear regarding the redistribution of the revenue generated by this new fee system and we are expecting clarification from the Commission tomorrow”. According to the MEP, the Commission proposal, however, appears to go in the right direction and the latter is seeking to “put an end to the incestuous system between manufacturers and laboratories” by strengthening them at a European level.
The Commission would like to consolidate its role as the supervisory body, by having the possibility of carrying out second expert opinions, as well as for vehicles that are already on the road. The explanatory note indicated that the objective is “compliance verification tests and inspections of vehicles, systems, components and separate technical units already made available on the market, with a view to verifying that those vehicles, systems, components and separate technical units conform to the type approvals and to applicable legislation as well as to ensure the correctness of the type approvals”.
According to the document, the draft would allow in the event of non-conformity being established, all Member States type approval, market surveillance authorities and the Commission itself to take restrictive measures in accordance with Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 to prohibit or restrict the making available on the market, registration or entry into service on the market of non-compliant products (particularly Article 21). According to this regulation, the Commission would be able to exercise the right of withdrawing vehicles from the market.
According to Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), the main difficulty at the moment focuses on the vehicle reception system, which is only partially organised. He informed the press in Brussels (see other article) that “a national authority can authorise the placing on to the market but no European authority can take action. The national authorities can recall vehicles from the European market for their own market, on the condition that it has really been proved that there is a problem”.
The Commission would also be able to impose administrative fines, with, however, certain restrictions: these administrative fines by the Commission are not on top of member state fines and shall not exceed EUR 30,000 per non-compliant vehicle. Finally, a mechanism is also being planned by the service of the Commission to introduce an obligation for access to the software and algorithms used by the vehicle by type approval authorities and automobile manufacturers.
The idea of setting up a European monitoring agency currently appears to have been ruled out by the Commissioner who is more in favour of a “pragmatic solution”. Nonetheless, Commissioner Bienkowska has not permanently ruled out the possibility and one source explained that “this involves a project that is difficult to envisage because who would fund such an agency? Member states? The manufacturers? The European budget?” The Greens/EFA Group, however, would like to put the pressure on, so that this kind of agency could be developed as part of the work of the commission of enquiry set up at the EP following the Volkswagen scandal (see EUROPE 11473 and 11472) explained Delli. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)