There was no agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the number of target vehicles to be tested and the fees system of the control and accreditation system set out in the European regulation on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles, at a meeting during the morning of Thursday 23 November.
The meeting was long and many points of agreement between the two institutions appeared to emerge, according to our information. Even so, it was not conclusive.
In particular, the question of the number of vehicles to be tested was discussed for the first time by the co-legislators. The Estonian Presidency of the Council proposed the compromise of building a little flexibility into the calculation method for the minimum number of tests to be carried out by the member states, by introducing a threshold of 5 to 10 tests a year for the smaller ones.
The Presidency is also proposing a control test to be carried out on one vehicle out of between 30,000 and 50,000 vehicles registered the previous year. It is also proposing to reorganise the different types of test, to lay emphasis on emissions tests and environmental impact tests, which, it reiterates, the Parliament has specifically called for.
The number of vehicles to be tested was discussed at lightning speed, a source told us, with no more than 30 minutes spent on the subject. The day before, at the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Member States to the EU (Coreper), the Luxembourg, Cypriot, Maltese and Irish delegations are reported to have asked to avoid requiring a higher number of tests than their infrastructure can cope with. Germany, which is well known to have serious reservations on the legislative draft, said that although it was necessary to have representative tests, there was “no need to go too far”, a diplomatic source told us, adding that it had taken just one vehicle to reveal the emissions scandal in the first place.
Differences of opinion over calculation methodology. On the number of vehicles to be tested, the Parliament would like it to be one vehicle out of every 30,000 registered the previous year. The Council would like it to be one vehicle out of every 50,000. The percentage of types of tests carried out on the vehicles examined continues to divide the Parliament and the Council, with the Parliament calling for 33% of tests carried out to be on emissions, where the Council proposes 20%.
According to the same diplomatic source, the problem is the inflexibility of these percentages, explaining that today, emissions are the problem, but that tomorrow, it could be the vehicle braking system, for instance. Some delegations are reported to have said that the rise of electronic vehicles would make emissions less important in the future.
At the Parliament, the fact that the fee to pay for the supervision and control system was not discussed is a problem for certain political groups. A fourth trilogue round may be requested for the next plenary session.
Time is tight, as the co-legislators have set themselves the target of an agreement under the Estonian Presidency. Readers may recall that the meeting of 23 November was initially scheduled for 9 November (see EUROPE 11892). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)