On Monday 9 October, environmental NGO ClientEarth warned that new rules that came into force on 1 September under EU Regulation 2017/1154 which allow car manufacturers to keep their emissions control systems secret from the public risk another Dieselgate scandal.
ClientEarth wants to force the car industry to explain to the public how the devices they use in their vehicles affect emissions on the road as opposed to under test conditions. The environmental law organisation announced on the same day that it has launched legal action against the European Commission to challenge the new rules, which it says flout EU rules, the Aarhus Convention on access to information, public participation in the decision-making process and access to justice in the environmental domain.
The Commission Regulation in question requires car manufacturers to explain what effect any calibration of the emission control system has on emissions to Type Approval Authorities, the national authorities in Member States that grant technical approval for vehicles to go to market. However, the NGOs explain that the rules allow this information to remain a secret between the manufacturer and the authorities, with the result that the public will be in the dark about emissions which have significant effects on their health. It points out that these same authorities ‘discredited themselves’ in the Dieselgate scandal by systematically failing to investigate excessive emissions and to enforce EU emissions rules.
ClientEarth says that under EU law, information on emissions cannot be kept secret to protect commercial interests. The blanket confidentiality provision of the new regulation violates this law as well as transparency provisions under the Aarhus Convention.
ClientEarth transparency lawyer Anaïs Berthier said: ‘Dieselgate uncovered the huge lack of political will to hold car manufacturers to account for dangerous and illegal emissions. To allow industry to continue keeping information on its emissions secret now sounds like a bad joke. This information must be public so individuals and NGOs can monitor whether car manufacturers are complying with vehicle emissions rules and if national authorities are keeping the industry on the straight and narrow.’ (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)