Hearing of Antonio TAJANI, former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010 - 2014), at the&nbsp;Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS), in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014), Pablo ZALBA BIDEGAIN (EPP, ES), Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), Seb DANCE (S&amp;D, UK), Mark DEMESMAEKER (ECR, BE), and Fredrick FEDERLEY (ALDE, SE).

Brussels

TAJANI, Antonio (EPP, IT)

emissions of vehicles (T)

GERBRANDY, Gerben-Jan (ALDE, NL)

DEMESMAEKER, Mark (ECR, BE)

hearing

DANCE, Seb (S&D, UK)

FEDERLEY, Fredrick (Renew, SE)

Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

ZALBA BIDEGAIN, Pablo (EPP, ES)

Hearing of Antonio TAJANI, former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010 - 2014): extracts from the meeting of the EMIS Committee

SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014) , The revision of the framework directive on type testing and the reform of the emissions test, these were part and parcel of an overarching strategy for the car industry, taking account of the current crisis to look towards the future. The goal was to stand up for 12 million jobs in the car industry.

SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014), the devlopment and the implementation of the new procedure for emisssion testing was also a crucial measure of the Axtion Plan Cars 2020, adopted by the Comission following my initiative in November 2012. In 2013, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) published the result of the analysis, and recommended road testing with portable emmission measurement system as the best procedure to measure to test real driving emissions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014), I never received any evidence or information about defeat devices being used by car manufacturers to cheat on emissions. The Commission kept the test procedure under review, and an ambitious test procedure was developed without any delay to measure real driving emissions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Pablo ZALBA BIDEGAIN (EPP, ES), Even the fact that the first analysis of the discrepancies between the emission measured in laboratory and those measured during the real driving, those analysis were available since 2006, why did take so much time, until 2013 to develop a new testing procedure?

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014) , As of 2011, we had the presentation of official results, and at the same time I called upon the JRC (Joint Research Centre) to come up with a strategy which would allow us to better pinpoint where things were going awry, to see where the discrepancies were. We wanted tests which would prevent any discrepancies between laboratory test and on-road tests. And to look at the various systems and identify the best one.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), When you took office you were aware that there was a problem with dysfunctional legislation, because the original targets were not met, and you also knew that Member States were not implementing and enforcing in the right way. Despite that, I do see a huge difference between for instance the way that the Commission dealt with air quality legislation, starting with 22 infringement procedures, and with your responsibility in this field, without any action towards Member States.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014), to open infringement procedures you need to have a legal basis and need to have strong evidence. Nobody ever gave me any evidence or indications that defeat devices existed. There was no indication of excessive emissions.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), I am not talking about defeat devices, I am talking about the discrepancy, so please focus on my question.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014),  Yeah I know what you're driving at. Looking at the discrepancies, they are not per se an infringement of the law.

SOUNDBITE (English), Seb DANCE (S&amp;D, UK), In a letter to you in 2013 Mr POTOCNIK, suggested that you introduce a system whereby type approval be removed from cars that don't meet the emissions limits. Is there a reason why you in your reply don't reference that and why in your explanation of that in the written answers, you said that cars only needed to meet the test cycle. That's not the equivalent as meeting the limits as we know. Why is that?

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014), I gave a clear answer to Mr POTOCNIK, the Commission could not withdraw any type of model, it was up to the Member States to do so because it was within the powers of the Member States. If there was any infringement, the Member States would have had to inform the Commission about defeat devices and so on, but, from a legal standpoint exceeding emission was not an infringement, the law was complied with, we changed the test to reduce discrepancies.

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Mark DEMESMAEKER (ECR, BE), I am trying to understand, because there was this precedent in the US, at the end of the 90s, and apparently the Commission was talking about a defeat software when Mr.LIIKANEN was around. We see that from your response to question nr.10. So why was this somehow let disppaear?

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014), well that was 10 years before I stepped in, as far as I am concerned I was never informed about defat devices. No MEP posed parliamentary questions about this to me, this did not happen at any European body, nobody informed me of any defeat device.

SOUNDBITE (English), Fredrick FEDERLEY (ALDE, SE), Do you consider that the only legal obligation for cars is to to pass the NEDC (New European Driving Cycle)  tests, would that also apply for toys for children, would they only be secure in laboratory? Or any other kind, air bags for a car? Do they only have to comply with legislation within a laboratory or would they also have to function on the market?

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Antonio TAJANI (EPP, IT), EP Vice-President &amp; former Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship (2010-2014), It is up to the Member State to verify that that those rules are being kept to. And if there is violation there are of course penalties in place, at national level and if community legislation is not being applied and if the Commission finds out about it, then the Commission can also impose penalties itself, which happened to Daimler-Benz.