Last week the European Parliament adopted an interim report of its committee of inquiry which examines the emissions scandal at VW and other car manufacturers. Unsurprisingly, nobody wants to assume responsibility.

The European Parliament is in the process of investigating the emissions scandal that started with revelations at VW. Among other questions, the EP examines what the Commission knew about the cheat software or whether it at least did have suspicions of its existence. After all, there had been indications for years that the automobile industry had been using software like this.

Nobody knew anything

In the committee the Commission was criticised that the ban on cheat software was too vague to prevent its use. However, the then-responsible EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry Günter Verheugen said in his hearing on 30 August that this criticism had not been voiced at the time of the ban's introduction. Former EU Commissioners Janez Potočnik (Environment) and Antonio Tajani (Industry) were also questioned regarding the hints referring to cheat software on 5 September. Both stressed that they did not receive any tips that a section of the car industry had been cheating. Potočnik even declared that he forwarded all information concerning the problematic laboratory conditions for testing to Tajani’s department. The latter in turn claimed that he and his staff had been convinced that the laboratory conditions would produce the best tests and that they did not have any other information – not even from the European Parliament. Both referred to the problems caused by the different authorities of Commission, Parliament and Member States.

Hence, responsibility was once again moved to and fro. The problem so far has been that the Commission had no mandate for supervision and that the Member States had no obligation to inspect, both of which in turn resulted from the watered-down legislation of EU institutions.

Interim report adopted by the committee and new Commission proposal presented

After six months of work by the committee of inquiry, an interim report has now been presented, which was adopted with a large majority by the plenum of the Parliament. The Parliament voices such demands like that the Commission improves its cooperation with the committee of inquiry and that it provides any documents faster.

Meanwhile, the Commission has presented a proposal for a new regulation which the AK regards as a useful step towards the removal of the current weaknesses. The regulation provides the Commission with more options for intervention (e.g. inspection of particularly suspicious testing institutes, stricter penalties for false emission data, more independence for test institutes) and a certain amount of coordination of market surveillance between Member States. However, universal inspections of registered types of vehicles in EU Member States by the Commission will probably not get approval from the Member States or the European Parliament. From an AK point of view, it is essential that the rules make a difference in reality: anything printed in the sales prospectus has to hold true once the vehicle is filled up at the petrol station as well as when it exhausts its emissions.

In any case, a comprehensive and progressive regulation would be urgently needed, as according to calculations by the Commission in 2010 alone ca. 420,000 people in the EU died as a result of air pollution. However, whether such regulation - given the resistance in the Member States and the interests of the automobile industry - will not be watered-down is difficult to say at the moment. It probably also depends on what the ten sessions of the Parliament’s committee of inquiry will have brought to light by the end of the year. The presentation of its final report in the plenum has been scheduled for 2 March 2017.

Meanwhile, Industry Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska has announced infringement proceedings against those Member States which in the event of emission violations did not take action against the responsible car manufacturers. Moreover, a report of MEP Daniel Dalton will probably be adopted in November , however, from the AK’s point of view, it does not go far enough.

Further information:

AK Position Paper on the Commission Proposal

AK Study on the deviations regarding the emissions between laboratory results and those under real-world driving conditions

Interim report of the European Parliament