Brussels, 20/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - Although the vehicles tested by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) between 2007 and 2010 emitted levels of polluting gas much higher than permitted, the organisation maintains that it is impossible to say whether the vehicles had been rigged or not, as that was not what it was mandated to check, JCR Director Delilah Al-Khudhairy, responsible for coordination of policy support, told the committee of inquiry into the Volkswagen scandal on Tuesday 19 April.
Anticipating the questions of the committee members, she said that, with regard to measuring emissions, the JCR remit is not to check compliance or to approve vehicles but to develop new testing methods and new technological possibilities for reducing emissions from vehicles and improving energy efficiency.
She also said that the research centre had been working on portable systems for measuring emissions under real conditions (PEMS) since 2004, initially only for lorries and buses. From 2007, the JRC decided to extend the use of PEMS to light vehicles. It procured 12 vehicles, selected on the grounds of size and engine type, and measured nitrogen oxide (NOx) levels 4-7 times, and in some instances 14 times, higher that European standards.
The JRC knew about defeat devices and knew that their use was banned, she said, before stating, in exchanges, that the JRC had stuck to its remit and had transmitted the full results to the Commission and member states, for example, in in the RDE expert group on polluting gas emissions from light vehicles, quietly pushing the responsibility back onto the Commission and the member states. Several German media have reported that the US authorities which broke the news of the scandal had been kept informed by internal Commission sources, raising many questions among the media and European and member state politicians (see EUROPE 11430).
A Parliamentary source wondered why Al-Khudhairy had been dispatched by the JRC when she had never been in charge of the follow-up to RDE tests. “We were expecting Giovanni De Santi” (Ed: Director for Energy and Transport at the JRC), the source continued, fearing veiled cooperation by the JRC and matters possibly being brought under Commission supervision.
The next meeting of the committee of inquiry is scheduled for 28 April. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)