Former industry commissioner from 2004 to 2010 Günter Verheugen states in his written response at the end of last week to the European Parliament committee of inquiry on the Volkswagen scandal, the EMIS committee, that he did not have enough information to allow him to take strong action against cheat devices.
“…the truth is that at that time a very limited and insufficient amount of data was available to substantiate any quantitative assessment of the gap between NOx (Ed: nitrogen oxide) emissions measured under the laboratory test cycle and in real driving conditions”, Verheugen wrote. The purpose of the response is to enlighten the committee as to the reasons for the lack of action on the part of the Commission during his time in office, even though the differences between laboratory measurements and real driving emissions were known, including to the Joint Research Centre (JRC).
Verheugen went on to say that it was for that reason that he had asked in 2007 and in 2009 – for further studies to be carried out by the JRC to determine what was causing the differences between the results obtained in the laboratory and under real driving conditions. Invoking the precautionary principle, the former commissioner said that he could only take action once he had solid scientific data at his disposal.
With regard to the fraudulent practices specific to cars certified as being in accordance with Euro 5 standards, Verheugen said that it was difficult during the time he was in office to obtain conclusive information since the cars which supposedly met the new European standards had been marketed in the course of 2010. He pointed out that he had left the European Commission in February 2010. He offered the same argument on the failings detected in national market monitoring systems.
More generally, the former commissioner said that, at the time, the priority was to adopt the new European standards on emissions (Regulation 715/2007) then to review the laboratory test cycles and put in place real driving conditions tests. On this point, Verheugen echoes what former environment Stavros Dimas told the same committee: that the priority had been to bring the new European emissions standards (Euro 5 and 6) into effect, and not the test cycles (EUROPE 11594).
Verheugen will appear before the committee on Tuesday 30 August. He twice previously declined invitations to respond to the EMIS committee’s questions in person (EUROPE 11590), leading MEPs to call on the current Commission president to bring pressure to bear. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)