An exchange of views&nbsp;with representatives of the European Commission had taken place today and gave the possibility to&nbsp;the EP committee of Inquiry&nbsp;to discuss&nbsp;the different aspects related to the emission scandal of Volkswagen.

exchange of views

emissions of vehicles (T)

GERBRANDY, Gerben-Jan (ALDE, NL)

Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

ZALBA BIDEGAIN, Pablo (EPP, ES)

CALLEJA CRESPO, Daniel (ES)

PELTOMAKI, Antti (FI)

EP Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector: extracts from the exchange of views with European Commission's representatives

SOUNDBITE (English), Antti PELTOMAKI, Deputy Director-General of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General, In the U.S. as well as the EU the use of defeat devices are expressively forbidden by law and I think that, and then the question is what are basic differences between the US and the EU systems, and I guess of course there are many kind of systematically differences on how we approach. I would say that I think our emphasis is much more on a kind of pre-market type approval when the US system is much more on market surveillance.

SOUNDBITE (English), Daniel CALLEJA CRESPO, Director General of DG Environment (DG ENV, The proposal for amending National emission ceilings directives is in a very important phase of negotiations between the Parliament and the Council and we have a very ambitious objective. We choose to reduce the health impact by more than 50 % to 2030 compared to 2005, this is the goal.

SOUNDBITE : (EN): CALLEJA CRESPO, Daniel, Director General of DG Environment (DG ENV) : We could have wished Member States to have been more ambitious than in relation to the proposal of the Commission which was reduced in its ambition; the work is now up front complete and persistent action will be needed. To conclude I would like to mention 3 very concrete actions which we are perusing right now. First of all we will continue to peruse the infringement proceeding to advance, apart from the 8 Member States who have received letter of formal notice, additionally infringements may follow if the NO2 values continue to be exhibit. Second, I have written to the Member States urging them to take action to ensure that the persistent exceedances and population exposure are significantly reduced as soon as possible and no later than 2020. This is our compliance promotion initiative. Third, we are accessing the feasibility of additional measures for example the establishment of voluntary mechanism like low or ultra-low emission vehicles which would play an important role. Of course we are also following the investigations on the Volkswagen case.

SOUNDBITE (English), Artur Runge-Metzger, Director &apos;International &amp; Climate Strategy&apos; in DG Climate Action of the European Commission., The Commission is also preparing a new legislative proposal to set longer term standards which mean post 2020 carbon dark side standards for life duty vehicles. These post 2020 standards need to be based on the new and stricter WLTP rules. In this context the Commission is also looking into ways to avoid the possible increase of the gap between test results and real world data. I think this is essential to ensure transparency and consumer confidence.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Pablo ZALBA BIDEGAIN (EPP, ES), Can European citizens be reasured in that the measures you are working on will make certain that in the future maunfactures won't be able to use this device any more?

SOUNDBITE (English), Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), I can imagine that the Commission itself is also investigating. Why did happen what happened, did the different DGs worked together in the right way, did the Commission sufficiently put pressure on Member State, etc.,etc. If there is such an internal investigation within the Commission, I would like to know if there is one, if not, why not?

SOUNDBITE (English), Antti PELTOMAKI, Deputy Director-General of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General, Inquiry, yes, I think we haven't established any kind of internal inquiry, of course I think that we are preparing ourselves for contributing to the European Parliament inquiry and I'm trying really to do it really in a coordinated way, we have agreed the procedures in place and that is now done. Very much thanks to you, that we have a kind of service inter-level, kind of sort of consultations, whatever kind of contribution we are providing, I'm trying to make sure that we have the best understanding of what has happened, why , how and by whom and I will provide you all the information that you need.