The European Union prepares for more legal action against governments that couldn’t investigate emissions test cheating by automakers following the Volkswagen dieselgate scandal, a top official stated.
In a bid to avoid a rerun of the Volkswagen scandal, the European Commission has proposed an overhaul of rules on how vehicles are certified and evaluated throughout the bloc. On Thursday, a draft bill, which would strengthen EU oversight, won the support of the European Parliament’s internal market committee in a vote.
However it still faces a tough fight to be authorized by member states, with EU market Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska alleging governments of obstructing the bloc’s efforts to check exactly what it views as stubborn habits by the car market.
“Member specifies they really failed to implement the law,” Bienkowska informed the EU lawmakers. “I feel they are still playing for time.”
Amid increasing disappointment over what Brussels views as governments colluding with automakers, it started legal cases versus Germany, Britain and five other EU members in December.
Bienkowska stated there were a lot more cases to come in the coming months. “However these are very minimal tools,” she added. “We need a new type approval system.”
The draft law, which will deal with disputes of interest when nationwide regulators examine and certify vehicles made by their own domestic producers, will now go to a plenary vote next month.
But some nations have balked at the reforms.
“There are components of this that are going to be extremely difficult,” Conservative lawmaker Daniel Dalton, who is steering the bill through Parliament, informed Reuters. “However member states cannot act in isolation.”
After Volkswagen admitted to using software to mask the levels of health-harming emissions from a few of its diesel vehicles, several European nations carried out their own investigations.
