Inquiry Committee on car emissions will provide solutions

"This inquiry should not turn into an inquisition court, but instead come up with ideas for solutions", said Françoise Grossetête MEP, Vice-Chairwoman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, ahead of today's approval by Parliament of the composition of the Committee of Inquiry on emission measurements in the automotive sector.

The European Parliament decided to set up a Committee of Inquiry following the revelations last year that the Volkswagen Group had dodged the NOx emissions limit for diesel cars.

The European automotive industry is an asset for the European Union. This sector accounts for roughly a quarter of global production of motor vehicles and €90 billion in trade surpluses.

"Now that this committee has been created, we need to be involved very seriously in its work and restore consumer confidence in the automotive sector. The EPP Group will be vigilant to ensure that the mandate is respected and that the committee does not become a diesel fuel trial", Grossetête continued.

“The Committee of Inquiry should identify the responsibilities following the scandalous cheating at Volkswagen, but also highlight solutions in order to prevent that anything like this happens again in the future. We should therefore introduce Real Driving Emissions (RDE) tests and make the type approval framework more transparent", she concluded.

The Committee of Inquiry will consist of 45 members of which 14 will be from the EPP Group. It will be appointed for one year.

The Committee of Inquiry will investigate:

1. The alleged failure of the European Commission to keep test cycles under review;
2. The alleged failure of the European Commission and Member States’ authorities to take proper and effective action to oversee enforcement and to enforce the explicit ban on ‘defeat devices’;
3. The alleged failure of the European Commission to introduce tests reflecting real-world driving conditions;
4. The alleged failure of Member States to lay down provisions on effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties applicable to manufacturers for infringements;
5. Whether the European Commission and the Member States had evidence of the use of ‘defeat mechanisms’ before the scandal emerged on 18 September 2015.