Activites

• 2008/01/15 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • T6-0007/2008 summary

    The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by Jorgo CHATZIMARKAKIS (ALDE, DE) in response to the Commission communication on a competitive automotive regulatory framework (CARS 21). The resolution was adopted by 607 votes for, 76 against, and 14 abstentions. It highlighted the economic importance of the European automotive industry as a sector producing 19 million vehicles yearly and providing 2.3 million direct jobs and a further 10 million in ancillary sectors. Parliament hoped that the parliaments of the Member States and their regions would wish to be associated with the outcome of the CARS 21 process, and suggested that an inter-parliamentary network for the purpose of considering automotive issues. Completing the internal market for cars: Parliament called on Member State authorities to work closely with the Commission in implementing the CARS 21 recommendations. It noted, in particular, the need to ensure that new regulations affecting the automotive sector are introduced in a coordinated manner, avoiding distortions in the internal market. It emphasised the need to perfect the EU system for type-approval, covering all motor vehicles. The Commission was asked to propose measures guaranteeing a registration-procedure, which will allow easier cross-border sales especially for used cars. A competitive automotive after market: the Commission was called upon to continue promoting effective competition in the automotive after-sales market by addressing consumer choice and effective access for independent market operators to technical information, training, spare parts, multi-brand diagnostic tools and test equipment in its future automotive policy. Parliament urged the Commission to submit proposals for the creation of an internal market for custom and tuning parts, such as special tyres, wheels and other tuning parts and spare parts, as the current diversity of national regulations obstructs the further development of this sector, which consequently would benefit from Community harmonising legislation and appropriate protection of intellectual property. Efforts were also needed to combat the import of counterfeit spare parts.Adopting environmental standards for the 21st century: Parliament believed that individual mobility and the automotive sector should be considered in the wider context of sustainable mobility. It felt that mobility and environmental protection were not necessarily mutually exclusive and that future car technology would have to contribute to reconciling the two. Indeed, the challenge of climate change in particular presented opportunities for technological advances and innovation. Parliament called on the Commission to create an environment that ensured that road transport was environmentally sustainable. It welcomed the rapid introduction of the Euro-5 and Euro-6 standards for the reduction of emissions of pollutants from private cars.  Parliament stated that improved air quality could be achieved only by a speedier renewal of the automobile fleet, in addition to the introduction of less polluting vehicles, and financial measures needed to be put in place to induce consumers to replace their old cars with less polluting vehicles. In the context of Community legislation, MEPs called on the Commission to begin the process of reassessing and revising emissions testing procedures to better reflect real life conditions of use, without prejudice to the ongoing discussion on CO2 emissions from cars. Reducing CO2 emissions substantially: Parliament welcomed the Commission's plans to reduce the CO2 emissions of passenger cars. It encouraged the Commission to consider developing a common framework for a coordinated application of technology-neutral and possibly harmonised CO2-related fiscal incentives that had a significant CO2 reduction potential, while avoiding distortions of competition. It urged the Council to reach an agreement on the Commission proposal to relate taxes on passenger cars to their polluting emissions such as CO2 in order to avoid further internal market fragmentation arising from varying application by Member States. Parliament also urged the Commission to set ambitious but realistic targets, taking into account the real situation in the EU market, where the fleet renewal rate was currently below 10% per annum. The affordability of new cars played a crucial role in achieving the Community target. The more ambitious the mandatory targets for CO2 emissions were, the more time should be granted to the automotive industry to adapt.  As the development of new types of passenger cars takes about five to seven years, MEPs urged the Commission not to set any final mandatory targets for CO2 emissions for any date before 2015. An average target of 125g/km of CO2 emissions for new passenger cars for 2015 should be achievable. MEPs considered it crucial in this connection that the target values should be graduated according to the weight of the vehicle. Parliament noted the Commission's plan to set a binding agrofuels target and called for the development of a mandatory certification scheme, applicable to agrofuels placed on the EU market. The certification criteria should be designed to ensure a minimum of 50% greenhouse gas savings over the whole life cycle compared to conventional fuels in addition to environmental and social criteria. Making road transport even safer: Parliament highlighted that additional security systems might further increase the weight of passenger cars, thus leading to increased CO2 emissions. It also expressed concern at the negative impact on road safety resulting from increases in the speed of vehicles. The Commission was called upon to: i) improve the road safety system by requiring Member States to tighten up learner-driver training requirements, expand compulsory training and introduce rules providing for the periodic training of professional drivers; ii) carry out the announced 2007-2009 assessment of the environment required for measures to reduce the number of road accident victims; iii) develop a system allowing car manufacturers to without penalty to produce vehicles that emit extra CO2 if these additional emissions result from legally binding safety measures taken at Community level; iv) improve the regime for the cross-border inspection of vehicles and the cross-border enforcement of fines imposed for the infringement of traffic rules in a foreign Member State as a matter of priority.Parliament did not believe that day time running lights should be obligatory throughout the EU.Bringing fair-play to automotive trade relations: whilst the EU automotive industry was one of the most competitive industries in the world, unfair competition and the infringement of intellectual property rights threatened this position. It was important that the current negotiations in the Doha Development Round made third-country markets as accessible as possible for automobile manufacturers, especially potentially large, emerging third-country markets. Whilst the successful conclusion of multilateral trade negotiations should remain a priority for the EU, Parliament nevertheless, supported the Commission's will to negotiate new bilateral trade agreements, primarily in Asia, in order to improve market access conditions. The Commission was urged, in the framework of the current EU-Korea FTA negotiations, to make sure that Korea abolished all existing tariff and non-tariff barriers and did not create new ones, and that it would implement more UN/ECE regulations. The committee requests that the Commission considers a strategy of phasing out EU import tariffs with safeguards and, therefore, recommends that this phasing out be connected to the lifting of non-tariff barriers on the Korean side.Parliament also emphasised the importance of a close partnership with China in the development of a regulatory framework offering a level playing field. It stated that effective protection of IPR was a precondition for such a partnership. It welcomed the Commission's request for the establishment of a WTO panel to resolve outstanding issues relating to the treatment of imported vehicle parts by China, which the Commission argued was inconsistent with several articles of different WTO agreements.Research and Development in the automotive sector: the Commission was asked to adopt before 2012 a strategy to increase significantly and sufficiently the R&D funding for the automotive sector, paying particular attention to supply industries. Member States should make any increase in future R&D funding for the automotive sector conditional on the binding nature of the CO2 emission targets. Member States and the EU institutions were urged to give all necessary support to the research and development of break-through technologies, such as hydrogen motors, fuel cells or hybrids. Parliament felt that the Intelligent Car Initiative, Galileo and other instruments contributing to an intelligent transport system were of the utmost importance and therefore called on the Commission strongly to support these developments.

• 2008/01/14 Debate in Parliament
  • Debate in Parliament
• 2007/12/04 Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading
  • A6-0494/2007
• 2007/11/22 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• 2007/06/21 Referral to associated committees announced in Parliament
• 2007/06/06 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• #2801
• 2007/05/21 Council Meeting
• 2007/02/07 Non-legislative basic document published
  • COM(2007)0022 summary

    PURPOSE: to present a Green Paper on the direction of future automotive policy.CONTENT: the Commission presents its position on the CARS 21 High Level Group which brought together the main stakeholders (Member States, industry, NGOs and MEPs) in 2005 to examine the main policy areas impacting the European automotive industry and to make recommendations for future public policy and regulatory framework. This Communication outlines the direction of future automotive policy. In the spirit of better regulation it aims to promote coherent interaction between different policy areas, provide predictability and seek the protection of public interest (e.g. environment and safety) while attempting to reduce the regulatory burden on industry. The proposals and initiatives contained in the Communication aim to improve the functioning of the internal market; simplify automotive legislation and pursue the internationalisation of the automotive regulatory environment; and promote environmentally sustainable road transport. Simplification of the regulatory environment: in the light of the fact that the Community has acceded to more than 100 international vehicle-related regulations adopted under the auspices of the UN/ECE which are applicable as alternatives to corresponding Community legislation, the CARS 21 Group recommended that 38 directives could be replaced by UN/ECE Regulations without any loss in the level of safety and environmental protection. In addition, it also identified one directive which could be repealed and 25 directives and UN/ECE Regulations in which self-testing and virtual testing could be introduced so as to reduce regulatory compliance costs for industry. The Commission supports these recommendations, but is conscious of the need to maintain the possibility for the EU to legislate independently from the UN/ECE system where this is required.  The Commission will propose replacing 38 EC directives with corresponding UN/ECE regulations as soon as the Framework Directive on type-approval has been adopted, and it will propose the introduction of necessary technical provisions for using self testing and virtual testing in 25 EC directives and UN/ECE regulations. Environmentally sustainable road transport:the Communication endorses the further limiting of pollutant emissions in line with the Thematic Strategy on Air Pollution. Furthermore, it describes the key elements of the future Commission strategy to reduce CO2 emissions from cars set out in the Communication on results of the review of the current Community strategy. The future strategy is based on an integrated approach to achieving the EU objective of 120 g/km CO2 by 2012 through a combination of EU and Member States action. The Commission will propose legislation, focusing on mandatory reductions of the emissions of CO2 to reach the objective of 130 g/km for the average new car fleet by means of improvements in vehicle motor technology. This will include setting minimum efficiency requirements for air-conditioning systems, the compulsory fitting of accurate tyre pressure monitoring systems, and setting maximum tyre rolling resistance limits in the EU for tyres fitted on passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. The Commission will propose a reduction of 10 g/km of CO2, or equivalent if technically necessary, by other technological improvements and by an increased use of bio-fuels. It will encourage additional efforts by the Member States (CO2 related taxation and other fiscal incentives, use of public procurement, traffic management, infrastructure, etc.) and by the consumers (informed choice as a buyer, responsible driving behaviour). The strategy is to be seen in the context of the Commission Communication on Energy for Europe (see COM(2007)0001). Road safety: the Commission feels an effective road safety strategy should be based on the interaction between improvements in vehicle technology, road infrastructure, driver behaviour and enforcement. A number of vehicle-related actions are proposed with the inclusion of the Electronic Stability Controlin new vehicles being the most significant. Other actions involve making the inclusion of Isofix child restraint systems obligatory for all new M1 vehicles, and making the use of daytime running lights obligatory. The Communication stresses the need to adopt a holistic approach to road safety involving vehicle features, infrastructure and road users.Trade: the Communication aligns the main concerns of the automotive sector to trade policy. It proposes to assess the potential of using bi-lateral trade agreements(particularly in the Asian region) to improve market access and reinforces the need enforce intellectual property rightsglobally. It will continue monitoring Chinese business and regulatory developments to ensure that improved market access resulting from China’s WTO accession is implemented in practice. It will also pursue a formal dialogue with China on issues related to China’s regulatory environment to ensure that there is a level playing field and legal certainty for the business community in this market. In this respect, the Commission will continue to follow the development of the draft Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law. Research and development:  with approximately € 20 billion (ca. 5% of the sector’s turnover) invested into research and product development the automotive industry is the largest industrial R&D investor in Europe in absolute terms. The Communication identifies clean renewable fuels and intelligent vehicles and roads as core research priorities. It adopts a forward-looking approach and outlines the Commission’s intention to set up a Joint Technology Initiative on hydrogen and fuel cellsas well as to put forward a regulation on vehicles which use hydrogen as a fuel.Taxation and fiscal incentives and competition in the aftermarket: the diverse vehicle-related taxation regimesin the Member States are considered to be among the main barriers to an effectively functioning internal market while the use of fiscal incentives should be coordinated across the Member States and should demonstrably contribute to the EU’s policy objectives in areas such as the environment and safety. With regard to the distribution of vehicles, the Commission will continue its efforts to ensure that Regulation (EC) No 1400/2002 on motor vehicle distributionis applied throughout the Community while in the light of the increasing complexity of vehicles it has become imperative that all vehicle repairers in the Community have access to the appropriate technical repair information.The Commission will, together with all relevant stakeholders, conduct a mid-term review of the actions proposed in the Communication in the course of 2009 to monitor progress made and, if appropriate, adapt the automotive regulatory policy framework on the basis of the results of the review It will regularly inform the co-legislators on the status of changes in automotive regulations by issuing an annual working paper on progress made at the UN/ECE.

  • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/', 'title': 'Enterprise and Industry'}, VERHEUGEN Günter

Documents

• Non-legislative basic document published: COM(2007)0022
• Committee report tabled for plenary, single reading: A6-0494/2007
• Debate in Parliament: Debate in Parliament
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T6-0007/2008

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)