Debate on the inquiry into emission measurements in the automotive sector, during the EP plenary session (12-15/09/2016) in Strasbourg. Statements by Pablo ZALBA BIDEGAIN (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), Rapporteur, Elżbieta BIEŃKOWSKA, Member of the EC in charge of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, Kri&scaron;jānis KARIŅ&Scaron; (EPP, LV), Kathleen VAN BREMPT (S&amp;D, BE), Hans-Olaf HENKEL (ECR, DE), Dita CHARANZOV&Aacute; (ALDE, CZ), and Claude TURMES (Greens/EFA, LU).

Strasbourg

debate

plenary session

emissions of vehicles (T)

CHARANZOVÁ, Dita (Renew, CZ)

HENKEL, Hans-Olaf (ECR, DE)

BIEŃKOWSKA, Elżbieta (PL, EC)

VAN BREMPT, Kathleen (S&D, BE)

GERBRANDY, Gerben-Jan (ALDE, NL)

KARIŅŠ, Krišjānis (EPP, LV)

TURMES, Claude (Greens/EFA, LU)

ZALBA BIDEGAIN, Pablo (EPP, ES)

Inquiry into emission measurements in the automotive sector: extracts from the debate

SOUNDBITE (Estonian), Pablo ZALBA BIDEGAIN (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, Why this scandal was able to take place? And then I think we have to do some soul searching, because Commissioner VERHEUGEN did negotiate here with some of our colleagues a legislation which time has demonstrated to be insufficient. Then Commissioner TAJANI arrived and he endeavoured to delay things while he tried to adopt ambitious legislation to reduce NOX emissions.

SOUNDBITE (Estonian), Pablo ZALBA BIDEGAIN (EPP, ES), Rapporteur, Crises are opportunities and this is the opportunity that the automotive sector needed to adapt to realities in a 21st century which is much more demanding concerning emissions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), Rapporteur, Most of the technical part we have done so far. And we just began with the political part of our inquiry. We have had hearings with a whole bunch of Commissioners, starting with formers commissioners DIMAS, POTOCNIK, VERHEUGEN, TAJANI and yesterday evening with the current commissioners BIENKOWSKA and VELLA. Very crucial also will be our focus on the Member States, and I am very much looking forward to the hearings with national ministers in the coming weeks.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), Rapporteur, Why did it take so long to develop this new real driving emission test? In 2010, the Commission work document said that it would take roughly 2 years for this technical exercise to develop this test. And we all know that it took many, many more years, and it is something that we have to dig into as well.

SOUNDBITE (English), El&#380;bieta BIE&#323;KOWSKA, Member of the EC in charge of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, The data submitted by Member States is incomplete, and there are still many outstanding questions for which additional technical information is needed. We, and I personally am disappointed with where things stand for now.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elżbieta BIEŃKOWSKA, Member of the EC in charge of Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, We face the current situation because of lenient enforcement and weak market surveillance. We have proposed to change this and to enforce the current system. A new supervisory system with Commission oversight and mutual control between Member States, together with EU penalties are crucial for overcoming the problems we are facing today.

SOUNDBITE (Latvian), Kri&#353;j&#257;nis KARI&#325;&#352; (EPP, LV), When the EURO 6 standard was adopted in 2007, the problem of emissions hadn't been resolved and the fact that emissions are much higher under normal driving conditions compared to laboratory conditions and there was only national monitoring of this, and no European monitoring. So I think that we have to learn something from that ideology, we shouldn't ignore the side effect.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kathleen VAN BREMPT (S&amp;D, BE), Chair EMIS Inquiry Committee, Cars with illegal defeat strategies are entering our markets daily,letting out emissions daily, and that will cause extra pollution for the years to come. The next month we will focus on the Member States, and that will be equally very very important. As the Chair of the Committee, I hope that all of us together, with the Commission, with the Member States but especially with the EMIS committee, that we overcome differences between political groups and that we stand as one.

SOUNDBITE (German), Hans-Olaf HENKEL (ECR, DE), We call upon the Commission when negotiating TTIP also to address the harmonisation of emissions directives for vehicles and take on board the highest standard among the two partners.

SOUNDBITE (Czech), Dita CHARANZOV&#193; (ALDE, CZ), The European Commission claims that there was no maladministration or failure to act, and that it was not aware of any irregularity. Many questions which are not answered. However if we do not provide clear answers, we are not able to restore the confidence of European consumers, which for me personally is our primary objective, and hence my call upon our rapporteurs to produce a clear and user-friendly final report.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claude TURMES (Greens/EFA, LU), Obama and his administration has done nothing else than doing their job. You have an industry which frauds and they get caught. What have we done in Europe? We had the same information as the US years earlier. We had it in winter 2009-2010. The Commission, Member States didn't ask one time a company the same question as the US did. Please explain to us the discrepancy between on road and the lab?