On Monday 19 December, almost a year after it was set up, the European Parliament’s committee of inquiry into the Volkswagen scandal (EMIS committee) published its provisional report. In it, the Parliament draws up its initial conclusions on many of the failings of the member states and European Commission.
Co-rapporteur, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (ALDE, Netherlands), stated: "Dieselgate would not have happened if our national governments and the European Commission had acted in line with their legal and administrative responsibilities. Our investigations point out that unnecessary delays in decision-making, negligence and maladministration contributed to making this fraud possible.”
"This report certainly does not try to show that Europe is the problem, but that it is the lack of Europe that is at the origin of this massive fraud", the chair of the EMIS committee, Kathleen Van Brempt (S&D, Belgium), told EUROPE. She hailed the quality of the report, for its "direct" and "firm" tone against the Commission and member states. "It's an excellent basis for work", she concluded, although she anticipated numerous amendments at the upcoming meetings of the EMIS committee.
The report is divided into five main parts focusing on laboratory tests and real-world emissions, defeat devices, type-approval and in-service conformity, enforcement and penalties, as well as the powers and limitations of the committee of inquiry. Each of the different parts contains two subsections listing the respective responsibilities and shortcomings of the member states and European Commission.
With regard to the laboratory tests, type-approval and real-driving emissions tests (RDE), MEPs consider that the delays are indeed caused by the technical difficulties in the dossier, but especially by the political decisions that prioritised the interests of the industry. The co-rapporteurs therefore regret the lack of commitment displayed by member states in the working group on RDE-LDV, as well as the obvious determination displayed by certain member states, encouraged by France, Italy and Spain, to slow down the adoption process. MEPs accuse the Commission of lacking drive for pushing forward the dossier at both the RDE and TCMV (Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles) levels, as well as the imbalance in the make-up of the working group, dominated by industry representatives.
On the issue of defeat devices, the report categorically denounces the responsibility of member states that failed to respect their legal obligations when it came to correctly implementing European legislation, as well as their failures to guarantee a ban on defeat devices as defined in the regulation on type-approval for motor vehicles (regulation 715/2007). The Commission is also criticised for failing to verify appropriate implementation of the regulation at a national level, despite having been warned about the subject by NGOs and the national authorities. MEPs also question the level of strictness applied to the use of defeat devices for heavy-duty vehicles (595/2009) and light duty vehicles (regulation 715/2007).
The member states were particularly subject to criticism from the MEPs on the question of type-approval. The latter consider that the national governments should have ensured that the type-approval authorities had enough human and financial resources to carry out their tests at their premises instead of basing them on the tests carried out at the automobile manufacturers’ laboratories. MEPs also consider that the failures on vehicle market monitoring constitutes an infringement to European law. On this point, the Commission is also accused by MEPs of not having fully carried out their role as the coordinating institution for ensuring standard implementation of European legislation.
With regard to the question of implementing legislation, MEPs regret that: there was little cooperation from the member states in sharing the results of their inquiries with the Commission, or the related technical data from their results (see EUROPE 11610); - the member states' delayed action in correctly implementing European legislation; - the absence of penalties against automobile manufacturers at a national level. With regard to the Commission, the report underlines the very reductive reading of European legislation with regard to checking possible abuses committed by automobile manufacturers using the defeat devices (the Commission is claiming that the principle of subsidiarity in this regard applied), as well as the absence of infringement proceedings against member states that failed to introduce effective market monitoring.
The report also provides an assessment of the conditions in which the European Parliament inquiry itself was carried out, and highlights the fact that the legal framework setting out the mandate of the committee of inquiry was exceeded. The Commission is particularly highlighted in this regard and the report emphasises the difficulties encountered when calling certain commissioners to hearings, due to the absence of clear obligations in the commissioners’ code of conduct (see EUROPE 11590). They also regret the problems that occurred regarding access to the minutes of the committee meetings. MEPs consider the cooperation displayed by ministers from the member states as "highly unsatisfactory" (see EUROPE 11623).
The report will be discussed at the EMIS committee on 12 January and the vote will take place on 28 January. The Parliament is expected to adopt it during the plenary session on 3-4 April. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)