18 Amendments of Martina WERNER related to 2016/2215(INI)
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. There are large discrepancies between the NOx emissions of most Euro 3-6 diesel cars measured during the type- approval process with the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) laboratory test, which meet the legal limit, and their NOx emissions measured in real driving conditions, which substantially exceed the limit. Those discrepancies affect most the vast majority of diesel cars and are not limited to the Volkswagen vehicles equipped with prohibited defeat devices. These discrepancies contribute, to a large extent, to infringements by several Member States of Directive 2008/50/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe.
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Although less so than for NOx emissions, there are also significant differences in the measured values of CO2 emissions and fuel consumption between laboratory tests and tests on the road;
Amendment 22 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. The mandate forRather than waiting for a new, more realistic and certified test procedure, the co-legislators decided to continue with the development of the Euro 5/6 legislation in 2007, while at the same time giving a mandate to the Commission to keep the test cycles under review, and revise them if necessary to adequately reflect the emissions generated by real driving on the road, included by the legislators in 2007, . This resulted in the development and introduction of real driving emission (RDE) testing with Portable Emission Measurement Systems (PEMS) into the EU type-approval procedure as of 2017, while introducing at the same time the notion of a conformity factor (CF), which, in practice, weakens the emission standards currently in force.
Amendment 24 #
5 a. At the same time, the development of a new, more realistic, laboratory test procedure, the so called Worldwide Harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP), that is due to replace the obsolete NEDC, took an extremely long time, and the test will be mandatory as part of the type approval process of all new vehicle types from 1 September 2017 onwards and for all new vehicles one year later. The WLTP has been chosen by the Commission and Member States as the test procedure for CO2 emissions, other pollutant emissions and fuel consumption measurements for the purpose of type approval.
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. It is debatable, as confirmed by several experts, whether there is a need to include any conformity factor in the RDE procedure, given that they remain in clear contradiction with the results of several independent tests carried out on Euro 6 cars, which showed NOx conformity factors below the value of 1.5 or even much lower than 1 are already achievable. Moreover, conformity factors are not justifiable from a technical perspective and do not reflect an obvious need to develop new technology, but rather allow the ongoing use of technology with less efficiency, while efficient technology is present on the market but has low penetration levels for economic reasons today.
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6 b. The introduction and application of conformity factors at the agreed levels could be considered a de facto blanket derogation from the applicable emissions limits for a considerable amount of time and thus run counter to the aims and objectives of the basic Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 given that the established conformity factors did not only reflect the measurement uncertainty of PEMS, but have been adapted further to the demands for more leniency by Member States and car manufacturers, without technical justification.
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. The analysis of the minutes of the RDE-LDV working group and of the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles (TCMV) shows that some Member States, including in particular France, Italy and Spain, acted on several occasions to delay the adoption process of the RDE tests and to favour less stringent testing methods. In addition, several Member States (Italy, Spain, France, Slovak Republic, Romania, and Hungary), prevented the formation of a qualified majority in the TCMV, resulting in a postponement of the vote on the first RDE package, and therefore a delay of the whole RDE process, that is still not completed today, but was initially foreseen to be applicable for compliance purposes as of the date of introduction of the Euro 6 emission limits (2014 for new type-approvals and 2015 for all new vehicles). As a result of lobbying from certain Member States for a higher value of conformity factor, new car models will have to respect the NTE Euro 6 emission standards, already agreed by the co-legislators in 2007, not before 2020. This is six years later than originally planned and three years later than the already once delayed timing the European Commission proposed in its CARS 2020 Communication of 8/11/2012 (COM(2012) 636).
Amendment 50 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Despite the issue of pollutant emissions from vehicles being not only a highly sensitive and political issue, but also a subject of high concern to the EU citizens, the Commission did not make any attempts to advance the decision- making process by making use of the possibility envisaged in the Regulatory Procedure with Scrutiny to bring forward the proposal to the level of the Council to increase political awareness and to exercise additional pressure on obstructing Member States. The Commission's failure to act in a timely manner on its responsibility to keep the test procedure under review and to revise it to reflect real world conditions constitutes maladministration.
Amendment 64 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Over half of the RDE-LDV working group participants consisted of experts from car manufacturers and other automotive industries. This can inter alia be attributed to the lack of sufficient technical expertise in the Commission departments. While the Commission consulted a wide range of stakeholders and ensured open access to the RDE-LDV group, it should have taken further steps to “"as far as possible, ensure a balanced representation of relevant stakeholders, including NGOs, consumers associations and civil society, taking into account the specific tasks of the expert group and the type of expertise required”", as required by the horizontal rules for Commission expert groups of 10 November 2010.
Amendment 88 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16 b. The evidence gathered confirmed that car manufacturers - who are responsible for ensuring that no prohibited defeat device is used in their vehicles - interpret the rules established in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 715/2007 in such a way that they are optimising their vehicles in order to simply pass the test cycle and comply with the letter of the law, but not necessarily the spirit. At the same time, the car manufacturers clearly disregarded the provisions set in Article 5(1) of the above- mentioned Regulation, obliging them to equip their vehicles so that the components likely to affect emissions are designed, constructed and assembled so as to enable the vehicle, in normal use, to comply with the Regulation and its implementing measures.
Amendment 89 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16 b. Optimisation strategies that reduce the effectiveness of ECTs can be attributed to commercial choices made by the car manufacturer to achieve different objectives, such as reducing fuel consumption, increasing user convenience, reducing costs by using cheaper parts or addressing design constraints. These objectives are not covered by the exemptions on the prohibition on the use of defeat devices.
Amendment 90 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. No authority searched for defeat devices or proved the illegal use of defeat devices before September 2015. No Member State authority or technical service performed any tests other than the NEDC, that has to be used in the scope of type-approval, which in itself cannot point to the use of a defeat device. While an alternative test in itself may not necessarily identify the use of a defeat device, the use of tests other than the NEDC could indicate suspicious emission behaviour and prompt the need for further investigation. Alternative tests have always been a possibility but have never been used. The vast majority of car manufacturers present on the EU market declared that they use the derogations to the ban on defeat devices foreseen in Article 5(2) of Regulation (EC) No 715/2007. The legality of the use of the derogations is subject to ongoing investigations and court cases.
Amendment 114 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. The Commission had no legal basis to search for defeat devices itself, but had the legal obligation to oversee the Member States’' enforcement of the ban on defeat devices. However, in spite of the awareness of, and communication between the relevant Commission services on, possible illegal practices by manufacturers, the Commission neither undertook any further technical or legal research or investigation on its own nor requested any information or further action from the Member States to verify whether the law may have been infringed, although it had the legal right to do so. This is despite an internal request from the Director General of DG ENV to the Director General of the responsible DG ENTR in 2014 to investigate the possibility of emission abatement techniques that "go beyond what is allowed by the Euro 5/6 legislation", which was subsequently ignored by DG ENTR.
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23 a. The Commission had to be aware of the likely use of defeat devices in practice, since its own Impact Assessment for the 2013 Clean Air Package clearly states that: "In addition to the intrinsic weakness of the NEDC, some vehicles seem to be designed to respect the limits only when tested on this cycle. Moreover, there is increasing evidence of illegal practices by some end users that defeat the anti-pollution systems to improve driving performance or save on the replacement of costly components" (footnote 39 of the Impact Assessment).
Amendment 126 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24 a (new)
Paragraph 24 a (new)
24 a. The Commission should have shown more initiative and diligence as regards the possible use of illegal defeat devices by car manufacturers given the general suspicion and numerous indications thereof. The JRC should have received the mandate from the Commission to investigate whether the reported suspicious behaviours of certain vehicles have any illegal connotations.
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 43
Paragraph 43
43. Member States did not monitor and enforce appropriately the application of Regulation (EC) No 715/2007, notably in contravention of Article 5(1) on the obligation for manufacturers to design cars which comply with the regulation in , construct and assemble cars so as to enable them to comply with the regulation in normal use. Yet, a former rapporteur on emissions and type approval legislation made very clear that the Parliament never intended to restrict "normal use" to the narrow conditions under which cars are tested in the laboratory for type approval. He indicated that driving conditions as can be commonly found when driving on European roads (including differences in temperature, altitude, engine load, vehicle speed, etc.) were meant to be considered as "normal use".
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 48
Paragraph 48
48. The Commission did notwaited several years to launch infringement procedures against those Member States that have not put in place effective market surveillance on pollutant emissions from vehicles and national system of penalties for infringements of EU law as required by the existing legislation.
Amendment 205 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 61 a (new)
Paragraph 61 a (new)
61 a. In order to facilitate the work of the European Parliament's committees of inquiry, given they work under considerable time pressure to scrutinise a huge amount of documents, it is essential that the rules governing the treatment of confidential information by the European Parliament, and in particular the access rights of members' accredited parliamentary assistants (APAs) to "other confidential information" (OCI), are reviewed.