Today the all-party environment and health committee in the European Parliament proposed new measures to address the systemic failures identified over the last year by the inquiry committee into emissions measurements in the automotive sector (EMIS).
 
The European Commission already presented a proposal for a new regulation on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles, and it is being analysed by several parliamentary committees. Socialists and Democrats believe that the proposal is still too weak to address the deficiencies of the current system, and today they got support for important amendments to address those shortcomings.
 
S&D spokesperson on environment and health, Miriam Dalli MEP, said:
 
“One of our main contributions to strengthen market surveillance at the EU level is the establishing of an EU Agency in charge of tests and inspections to oversee the accuracy of the implementation of EU rules at national level. We are glad that we also got support to provide sufficient and adequate financing.
 
“Until now, the rules were interpreted too liberally by both car manufacturers and member states and we ended up in a situation where no sanctions are being applied, which meant no control over the cars driven on European roads, worsening air quality in European cities and a constantly increasing threat to our citizens' health.”
 
The internal market committee will be responsible for steering this report through the Parliament, and Christel Schaldemose MEP, the S&D shadow rapporteur and member of the committee, added:
 
“We will push for the same principles when we vote in the internal market committee in December. We need a better clarification of responsibilities between the national type approval authorities, technical services and market surveillance bodies.
 
“We also need coherence in the interpretation of what constitutes a ‘defeat devices’ and what is necessary in terms of engine protection, so that no car manufacturer can, in practice, bend or violate the EU rules.”

MEPs involved
Head of delegation
Coordinator
Denmark