Meeting of the Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS)&nbsp;in Brussels.&nbsp; Hearing with Mr Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for the Environment from 2004 to 2010. Statements of &nbsp;Stavros DIMAS, Former commissionner from 2004-2010. Questions by Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL),&nbsp; Kri&scaron;jānis KARIŅ&Scaron; (EPP, LV), rapporteur and&nbsp;Jens GIESEKE (EPP, DE), Rapporteur.

Brussels

meeting

emissions of vehicles (T)

GERBRANDY, Gerben-Jan (ALDE, NL)

KARIŅŠ, Krišjānis (EPP, LV)

hearing

GIESEKE, Jens (EPP, DE)

Committee of Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector

DIMAS, Stavros (EL)

Inquiry into Emission Measurements in the Automotive Sector: extracts from the hearing of Stavros DIMAS, former EC Member in charge of the Environment from 2004 to 2010

SOUNDBITE (English), Stavros DIMAS, Former commissionner from 2004-2010, For the regulation, the average annual reduction in 12 years, 1995 to 2007, was 1.4% and the figures after, 2008 to 2010 the average reduction was 10.7% This was a very important change of pace.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), Rapporteur, Can you explain why more than 10 years after those days, it is still not in place? What happened? Were there huge pressures from certain services within the Commission, from member states, from the industry, to slow down the process of the development of the new test cycles.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stavros DIMAS, In my opinion, it could have also taken less time. 10 years is too long but you know how the work in the Commission and the European Union also is done. We have various majorities, qualified majorities in certain committees.

SOUNDBITE (English), Gerben-Jan GERBRANDY (ALDE, NL), Any test cycle and then you add, the NEDC in particular, represented the vehicle emission during real use only very poorly. So it was very well known in a commission where the environment has a high priority that the development of such test cycles should have a huge priority. We have seen that the differences between the test results and the real life emission has been growing since then. So were there very strong forces against a quick development of a new test cycle?

SOUNDBITE (English), Stavros DIMAS, The issue was well done and this is the reason why in the legislation, there are two empowerements.

SOUNDBITE (English), Stavros DIMAS, We had to choose at that time whether we should go ahead with the legislation Euro 5 or Euro6 or wait for the test cycles to be changed and have a new test which will represent in a better way the real driving emissions. Or should we go ahead with the legislation and of course at the same time, we had the review of the laboratory test and the replacement with a better test.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kri&#353;j&#257;nis KARI&#325;&#352; (EPP, LV), rapporteur, Why then did the Commission, in your view, take the decision to push the legislation through and to move forward knowing that there were these fundamental measurement problems

SOUNDBITE (English), Stavros DIMAS, What we choose to do, and I think we took the right decision, is to go ahead with the legislation keeping the same test procedures, which was actually the legal procedure and at the same time, we start reviewing and trying to find a better system to measure the emissions in the correct way.

SOUNDBITE (German), Jens GIESEKE (EPP, DE), Rapporteur, Now we heard this morning that the legislation has not been changed, was not changed since 1998, did you have any sorts of hints from the Commission 2007 that the legislation was not perhaps worded very clearly? Did you have any indication of that?

SOUNDBITE (English), Stavros DIMAS, I am talking about the Volkswagen case or any other cases if they exist, it is a fraud. It*s cheating which is prohibtied. Article 5 bans defeat devices. It*s very clear. If there is a problem of interpretation because the implementation concerns 28 member states, then we need, in a way, a unified interpretation. If I followed the work of the Commission well, this is something what they are working on.