Car emissions: former Rapporteurs from S&D should be quizzed

“We have learned that the vague legislation put in place during former Commissioner Günter Verheugen's tenure (2004-2010) is in large part responsible for the mess we’re in today. We need to dig even deeper into what happened during that period,” said Pablo Zalba Bidegain MEP, Co-Rapporteur in the Inquiry Committee into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS) after today’s adoption of the Interim Report in plenary.

Although the EMIS Interim Report is a procedural and technical report without conclusions, the work done so far gives MEPs a direction for the Committee's work in the second half of its mandate.

“We have to explore the Parliament's role and responsibility in drafting the failed legislation. We should ask why the Parliament's Rapporteurs at the time - Bernd Lange and Matthias Groote from S&D - despite their sound knowledge of and connections to the automotive industry, did not realise that the legislation on defeat devices drafted by Verheugen was vague and had loopholes, as Verheugen admitted at his hearing,” said Zalba Bidegain.

The EPP Group expects the Chair of the Committee, Kathleen Van Brempt, to invite Lange and Groote to the EMIS Committee.

The final report will be voted early next year.