Brussels, 01/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium), in her capacity as chair of the committee of inquiry (EMIS) into the scandal of the software being used to falsify emissions readings, has urged the European Commission to cooperate with MEPs and to grant access to documents that have long been requested, a press release published on Friday 1 July reveals.
The MEPs on the committee have been calling for the European Commission to provide them with the minutes of meetings of the technical committee on motor vehicles (TCMV). This was to help them understand why no real conditions emissions testing had been put in place, despite the fact that Regulation 715/2007 made provision for such testing. “The aim is to determine the member states which prevented development of these emissions tests”, a source told us.
DG Internal Market and Industry (DG GROW) has yet to make these documents available. It appears that it is demanding that the documents be consulted in a secure reading room, a condition to which the MEPs acceded, “even though they were not required to do so”, a source says, pointing out that the minutes requested are non-classified documents and should not, therefore, be subject to the rules associated with consultation of confidential documents.
EMIS committee chair Van Brempt has rejected the condition imposed by the Commission that access to the documents be subject to a confidentiality clause, on the basis of the decision by the Bureau of the European Parliament of 15 April 2013 “concerning the rules governing the treatment of confidential information by the European Parliament”. Accepting a clause of this sort would prevent the MEPs from revealing the positions of the various member states.
Possible influence of Jyrki Katainen. For the moment, the bilateral agreement between DG GROW and the EMIS committee to set the framework for consulting the documents would appear to remain deadlocked. DG GROW, however, would seem to be above reproach, several Parliamentary sources having acknowledged its sincerity in cooperating. The impasse would seem to be “at the highest level of the Commission”, according to the press release. According to a number of observers, Jyrki Katainen, Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Employment and Growth, seems to be behind it. Katainen was the vice-president of the EPP from 2006 to 2012 and some see in this a possible association with the EPP, which always voted against the creation of the committee of inquiry before trying, unsuccessfully, to grab chairmanship of it (see EUROPE 11503).
Refusal to cooperate by former commissioner Verheugen. Former Industry Commissioner from 2004 to 2010 Günter Verheugen is resolutely refusing to appear before the MEPs despite a request from European Parliament President Martin Schulz (see EUROPE 11578 and 11575). Schulz is expected to write to the president of the European Commission on Monday calling on him to bring pressure to bear on the former commissioner, according to a source. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)