National ambassadors to the EU (COREPER) gave their go-ahead on Wednesday 20 December to the interinstitutional agreement reached on the approval and surveillance of motor vehicles.
The Council and European Parliament reached agreement on the regulation on Thursday 7 December, more than two years after the European Commission published its proposal. The agreement grants an important role to the European Commission and foresees administrative penalties and numbers of vehicles to be inspected by the member states (see EUROPE 11921).
The go-ahead paves the way of rapid adoption by the Council of the EU under the Bulgarian Presidency, but Article 9a gives new powers to the European Commission for checking the conformity of the market surveillance system that a number of member states are not happy with. The Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia have reportedly said they wanted to abstain from the vote.
During the interinstitutional negotiations, a number of member states (the Czech Republic, Poland, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia and Cyprus) made a counter-proposal after the proposal by the Estonian presidency on the article, which they felt was disproportionate and introduced unnecessary administrative burdens. They want the European Commission to be able to intervene but only in the event of recurrent problems relating to conformity among the member states’ certification authorities. Their proposal was not retained. Germany reportedly said it would support the agreement, but not without a declaration on said article.
France is reported to be fully confident in the European Commission for defining the role of information exchange.
At the European Parliament, the internal market and consumer protection committee will adopt its position in the first committee meeting in January, which is likely to be adopted by the plenary in April. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)