The Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU wants to move forward quicker on the regulation for the motor-vehicle market approval and monitoring regulation and be able to obtain a common position under its mandate, according to the Maltese minister for the Economy, Christian Cardona, addressing MEPs from the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) on Wednesday 25 January.
The Maltese Minister appeared to be adopting the rhetoric of the European Commission and he believes it to be of the utmost importance to move forward on this dossier as soon as possible, given that the Commission submitted its proposal more than a year ago and the fact that discussions have been continuing over two presidencies. He stated that “We will try and adopt a final position”.
In this regard, the Minister supported the proposal for a forum between peers and the appropriate national authorities on the motor vehicle approval and monitoring market but did not make any mention of a project for setting up an agency, despite requests on the subject by several MEPs including Daniel Dalton (ECR, United Kingdom), rapporteur for this text in Parliament.
The determination to move forward more quickly was confirmed by a diplomatic source that explained to EUROPE that the Council work group on technical harmonisation for motor vehicles will be meeting up for a day and a half on 6-7 February next instead of a single day as initially planned. The Maltese Presidency would like to present a progress report during the Competitiveness Council on 20 February.
Question of what shape exchange and control should take divides Council. The silence from the Maltese Minister on the question of setting up a European monitoring agency can be explained by the fact that it has been impossible to obtain a position on an issue that has not been resolved by the member states themselves. According to our source, however, during a work group meeting on technical harmonisation in the middle of last January, the project for an independent European undertaking received almost no support from member states. We were informed that France was the only country that called for an independent body capable of ensuring a homogeneous interpretation of European legislation and arbitrating on litigation between two different states.
The draft for organising a forum does not appear to have obtained unanimous support from member states either. Similarly to France, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and even Germany, would like a “strong” forum whose recommendations would be followed by decisions with binding powers. Others, such as Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, would prefer that this forum remained a platform for coordination and exchanges between the respective authorities in charge.
Parliament negotiations delayed. The vote on the report by Mr Dalton at the IMCO Committee was delayed until 9 February due to the many blockages that had occurred in the negotiations, as well as many amendments (more than 1100). Two camps are pitted against each other: MEPs from the Greens/EFA, S&D and EFDD groups are in favour of increased European control, whereas the rapporteur, with the support of the EPP, ALDE and GUE/NGL groups, would prefer a system but remained within the scope of the member states. The Greens have publicly denounced the position of the liberals in this regard (see EUROPE 11710). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)