The chairperson of the European Parliament's EMIS committee of inquiry into the Volkswagen scandal, Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium), expressed her displeasure in a press release published on Thursday 17 November over the repeated refusal of Slovak Minister for Transport Árpád Érsek to come and address MEPs. Another source of concern amongst MEPs involves the absence of an infringement procedure against member states, despite the fact that this was given much prominence by Commissioner for Industry Elżbieta Bieńkowska when she addressed the EMIS committee.
Van Brempt stated that “MEPs on the committee consider that this involves a failure to respect the Parliament's right to carry out an inquiry, particularly when its involves the member state that currently holds the Presidency of the EU”. Nonetheless, according to one parliamentary source who is optimistic about the outcome of the case, “they always end up agreeing to come” because this is not the first time that the committee has had to confront such a situation.
The former commissioner for industry, Günter Verheugen (2004-2010), also refused to address the committee before changing his mind (see EUROPE 11590). Similarly, the French Minister for the Environment Ségolène Royal rejected an invitation before going back on her decision, following the personal intervention of Van Brempt (see EUROPE 11643). Royal will come and testify to MEPs on Thursday 24 November on the sidelines of the plenary session in Strasbourg.
Commission displays certain “wait-and-see” attitude. Another source of discontent involves the absence of infringement procedures against member states, which have on a number of occasions been identified as having failed to correctly apply European legislation on emissions.
Bieńkowska herself had even announced the impending infringements when she addressed the EMIS committee (see EUROPE 11623). Van Brempt informed EUROPE that she would “send a letter to the cabinet of the commissioner on the subject next week”. She also pointed out that the commissioner had announced the publication, before the end of the year, of guidelines to help member states correctly apply European legislation. Karima Delli MEP (Greens/EFA, France), the vice chair of the EMIS committee and rapporteur for the own opinion on the regulation on vehicle market monitoring, is also concerned about it and said “it would be unlikely that Ms Bieńkowska backtracks or fails to put pressure on the member states”. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)