Brussels, 05/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has weakened itself politically by focussing on better regulation, an approach which leads to increased deregulation and benefits industry. That is the analysis of Jos Dings, Executive Director of Transport & Environment (T&E), in his written responses for the extraordinary meeting of the EMIS committee of inquiry into the defeat software scandal.
“Gradually the Commission has at the highest level lost the political will to 'lead'” and this has a direct impact on the working groups charged with carrying out the preparatory work on the various issues related to the motor car sector, he said, referring to the high-level GEAR 2030 group on the competitiveness and sustainable growth of the automotive industry (EUROPE 11416). The result is delay in legislative proposals on CO2 emissions and on the communication on vehicle safety, the publication date of which is, for the moment, unknown.
Furthermore, the lack of leadership by the Commission, a corollary of the ever more marked resistance by the member states, could lead to a dangerous situation, according to Dings, who suggested that “Made in Europe” technologies could progressively lose their value on international markets.
Previous Commissions also come in for criticism. By focussing the work of the high-level CARS21 group that was launched in 2005 (EUROPE 8923) on what was being done by the working party 29 of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), devoted to harmonising of vehicle regulations, former industry commissioner Günther Verheugen encouraged lack of transparency in the decision-making process, argued Dings. According to confidential CARS21 minutes, the former commissioner from Germany argued for a lowering of the level of ambition on CO2 norms (130 g/km by 2012 rather than 120 f/km), Dings said.
Verheugen is criticised for his refusal to appear before the Parliament's EMIS committee of inquiry whose task it is to shed light on the Volkswagen scandal (EUROPE 11578). In the view of T&E, the best way to prevent the fraudulent practices of which the German car maker was guilty would be for the EU to create a European approval authority to replace the current panoply of national authorities. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)