Time to move to solutions on car emissions

28.02.2017 15:10

Time to move to solutions on car emissions

“We need stronger rules for type approval of cars in the European Union that will effectively deal with the emission problems from diesel cars uncovered by the work of this Inquiry Committee. It is also clear that we need a stronger EU oversight of the car-related legislation”, said Krišjānis Kariņš MEP, EPP Group Spokesman in the Inquiry Committee, after today’s vote in the Inquiry Committee on Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector on the two Reports that make up the conclusions and recommendations from the committee.

“It goes without saying that the implementation and enforcement of the emission rules leaves much to be desired. Looking forward, we also have to make sure that each Member State does a proper job to check that the cars already on the road respect the emission norms on which we have agreed”, said Jens Gieseke MEP, co-rapporteur of the two Reports.

The Inquiry Committee was set up in the beginning of 2016 in the aftermath of the investigations into the emissions from Volkswagen diesel cars in the United States in September 2015.

The EPP Group has worked constructively in the committee to make sure that the mandate was respected: to identify the responsibilities following the emissions cheating and to highlight solutions in order to prevent anything like this happening again in the future. It quickly became apparent that the introduction of Real Driving Emissions (RDE) tests instead of laboratory tests and new vehicle type approval rules were essential.

“I’m therefore happy that the final Reports adopted with a large majority emphasise the solutions needed instead of entering into a meaningless blame game”, said Krišjānis Kariņš.

In a broader context, the work of the Inquiry Committee has also highlighted the need to be smarter in the way we legislate in the environmental field.

“The many experts who came to our hearings made it clear that the very narrow focus on climate policy and specifically on reducing the greenhouse gas CO2 comes with a fundamental trade-off. That trade-off was higher emissions of the highly toxic pollutant NOx from diesel cars”, said Jens Gieseke.

“The tunnel vision with a strong focus on only CO2 has proved to be harmful. We therefore need to be smarter in our policy, not to set an unrealistic target, and not to exclude certain technologies”, Krišjānis Kariņš concluded.

Note to editors

The EPP Group is the largest political group in the European Parliament with 217 Members from 27 Member States

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