In the context of another scandal on emissions testing on animals and human beings carried out by the automobiles sector, the Commissioner for the Single Market and Industry, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, made a statement to MEPs on Monday 5 February in Strasbourg, in which she called on member states to shed light on the situation and carry out legal action, if necessary.
In her brief statement, the Commissioner condemned in "the strongest possible terms" the behaviour by the automobile manufactures but did not name any names. She highlighted the fact that the action that needed to be taken was in the hands of the national authorities and called on the ministers of the Council to cooperate and fully inform the European Commission about the situation. She explained that the objective was to decide whether these experiments are still being carried out on behalf of the automobile sector.
The Commissioner also called on the member states, if needs be, to take legal action, although she did not expect much in this connection. She regretted the fact that, “unfortunately, I am afraid to say that their willingness to do so has been very limited”. The Commissioner added that the law could not do everything and that the automobile manufacturers should change their behaviour and respond to the highest ethical standards. Bieńkowska concluded by providing assurances that she would appear before the MEPs once the responses from the member state had been collected.
Following the revelations by the German press, (see EUROPE 11949), the Commissioner had already expressed her indignation on Twitter on 30 January last. Speaking on the social network, Commissioner stated, “Testing diesel emissions on humans and monkeys is unethical and unacceptable for any European company in the 21st century”. The Commissioner was also questioned about the systemic problem of company culture and concluded that, “the time had come to invest in zero emissions”.
Two Parliamentary initiatives target European Commission
Parliament’s dissatisfaction has cut across the entire political spectrum and memories of the Volkswagen cheat devices are still fresh. On Thursday 1 February, a cross partisan group of just under 20 MEPs, on the initiative of Karima Delli (Greens/EFA, France), addressed a letter to the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker and the other commissioners responsible for this dossier, calling on them to take action.
In this letter, the MEPs called on the European Commission to: present an expanded regulation banning industrial products that have been subject to animal testing from being put on the European market; monitoring whether the European Research Group of Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT), which carried out emissions tests on monkeys and human beings, benefited from Union aid and if this is indeed the case, for it to apply financial penalties on the group; to demand the "immediate" resignation of Helmut Greim, the President of the EUGT, from his role at the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limits (SCOEL); include "diesel vapours" in the carcinogenic substances contained within the second review of the 2004/37/EC directive, as also sought by the Belgian rapporteur on the text, Claude Rolin (EPP) (see EUROPE 11908).
This is not an isolated initiative. At the same time, around 70 MEPs have called on the European Commission to carry out an enquiry (see EUROPE 11953). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)