Hearing of G&uuml;nter VERHEUGEN, Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry from 2004 to 2010 at the Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS), in the&nbsp;EP iin&nbsp;Brussels.&nbsp;Statements by G&uuml;nter VERHEUGEN, former Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry&nbsp;and Seb DANCE (S&amp;D, UK)

Brussels

meeting

emissions of vehicles (T)

hearing

DANCE, Seb (S&D, UK)

Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

VERHEUGEN, Günter (DE)

Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements: extracts of the hearing of Günter VERHEUGEN, EC Member in charge of Enterprise and Industry from 2004 to 2010

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nter VERHEUGEN, former Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, (Explaining why it took him some time to decide to come to that hearing) I really wasn&rsquo;t convinced whether it was procedurally correct as an ex-Member of the COM to speak on behalf of the Commission, because there is only one &lsquo;a Commission&rsquo; we can&rsquo;t distinguish between a Prodi Commission or Barroso Commission or Juncker Commission, there is only a Commission, but then I saw that you would be talking about questions which only one person could answer and that is the person who took the decisions at the time.

SOUNDBITE (English), G&#252;nter VERHEUGEN, former Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, (The statement to read that was prepared by the COM for him to read - he underlined that he agrees with the content) At the time of agreeing the Euro 5 and 6 standards the new European driving cycle, it was the only regulatory test available for cars therefore there was no other solutions than linking emission limits to that cycle.

SOUNDBITE (English), G&#252;nter VERHEUGEN, (2nd part official statement) Shortly before the end of my mandate I requested JRC to verify the NOX emissions limits of Euro 5 vehicles as they became available on the markets at the end of my term as Member of the Commission. The JRC work shows that NOX emissions of diesel vehicles were systematically higher on the road than on the laboratory test sides, pointing at a general problem of our new regulation which provided for laboratory tests at this point. This led my successor to launch the development of real driving tests procedures.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nter VERHEUGEN, former Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, On 2 decisive issues there was absolutely no discussion, there was complete agreement that the tests available did not reflect the real emission values, everybody knew that including the European Parliament which adopted the proposals.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nter VERHEUGEN, Of course and I would also say the sooner we had a test that reflected reality the better it is, there is no question about that, but the Research centre had already worked on test methods and I talked about that in my introductory statement and the job they were are giving to do in 2007 was a continuation of that work, it is the question of how much time it takes to produce this kind of a study, but this whole matter was not concluded in my time of office.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nter VERHEUGEN, former Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, (Answer to a question if at any time there were hints that a possible manipulation could have existed)  We have to be frank with each other that was not something anyone suspected, I didn&rsquo;t even think it was possible, from a moral point of view I didn&rsquo;t think it was possible and I didn&rsquo;t think it was possible from a technical point of view to do this. There was not the slightest indication, there was absolutely no information on this.

SOUNDBITE (German), G&#252;nter VERHEUGEN, (Answer on a question by MEP DANCE, why there was no explicit rule on defeat devices concerning light duty vehicles, whereas the text on heavy duty vehicles was much concreter) I&rsquo;m a bit confused now, I have the text right here in front of me, 7.15 for light duty vehicle, Euro 5 and Euro 6 and article 5 states clearly that defeat devices are forbidden, that is quite clearly stated in article 5, so I&rsquo;m quite confused what you said to me right now.

SOUNDBITE (English), Seb DANCE (S&amp;D, UK), It may well be that you have article 5 which explicitly forbids defeat devices, but what is a defeat device and there is the text for heavy duty vehicles that makes it perfectly clear that emission abatement technology must applicable in all use, that text is not there for light duty vehicles.