The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) has welcomed the inter-institutional agreement reached by the co-legislators on Thursday 7 November on the regulation for the type approval and marketing of motor vehicles. The European Consumers Organisation (BEUC), however, was more reserved in its response.
It should be recalled that the Council and European Parliament reached an agreement on the member states carrying out annual controls of registered vehicles over the course of the previous year for 40,000 vehicles, with a minimum of five tests to be undertaken by the smaller member states.
The member states will therefore have to dedicate 20% of all tests to emissions. The Council and Parliament also agreed to allocate a supervisory role to the European Commission and the right to impose administrative fines, as well as set up an advisory forum for exchanging information and implementation (see EUROPE 11921).
ACEA Secretary General, Erik Jonnaert stated, “The agreement reached today seems to strike a balance between the aim to make the whole type approval system more robust and efficient and the need to avoid excessive administrative burden for car manufacturers.” He also thought that this agreement would give the legal certainty and clarity needed by the automobile industry and, “will enable the automobile industry to regain consumer trust”.
The European Consumers Organisation (BEUC) is a little less enthusiastic. It welcomes the fact that the EU can assess national type approval systems but regretted that only 20% of tests focused on emissions and that CO2 emissions were not covered. The European Parliament would also like to include the possibility of carrying out collective appeals for consumers, an option that the Council rejected.
On Friday 8 December, the Estonian Presidency of the Council was drawing up a report on the inter-institution agreement for the Committee of Permanent Representatives to the EU (Coreper), which, according to the information we have received, will return with their comments on Wednesday 20 December. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)