On Friday 27 March, Belgium, Germany and Finland submitted proposals for the simplification of Europe’s automotive regulations (‘omnibus’). In a document obtained by Agence Europe, the three States responded to a draft compromise presented by the Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council.
Included in the ‘automotive package’ presented by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13773/9, 13774/13), the ‘omnibus’ simplification legislation aims to lighten the administrative burden and reduce costs for European manufacturers.
On the one hand, Belgium has requested clarification from the Presidency regarding the implementing or delegated acts that the Commission could adopt, in particular concerning the ‘Euro 7’ standard.
Germany has also drawn up a proposal concerning Article 49 on the regulation of end-of-series vehicles. It considers that “the market surveillance authority should not be limited by any means to check against the regulation”. According to the German government, the latter “should be able to check the approval of an emission strategy even if it is approved by the type approval authority”. It would also like to add a recital to the amendment to the effect that “approval of the extended documentation package shall not constitute proof of the absence of manipulation devices or manipulation strategies”. Germany has said that it is prepared to make drafting suggestions.
Finally, Finland raised the issue of the freezing of AdBlue, a diesel exhaust fluid, in relation to the ‘Euro 7’ regulation. It considered that manufacturers should “provide the approval authority with a signed declaration of compliance as regards the durability of reagent injection system withstanding long-term use in extreme cold conditions without abnormal failure rates”.
Because of the country’s very low winter temperatures, Finland argued that the current legislative framework did not take this parameter sufficiently into account. It asked the Commission to assess the possibility of harmonising and improving the operational requirements for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) processes.
Read the document: https://aeur.eu/f/le7 (Original version in French by Anne Damiani, with Solenn Paulic)