Members of the parliamentary Committee of inquiry into Emission
Measurements in the Automotive Sector (EMIS) heard on Monday the
testimony of former commissioners
Janez Potocnik (Environment) and
Antonio Tajani (Industry).
Through the almost 4-hour session, it became clear that the European
Commission had more than enough information regarding the possible use
of defeat devices by the car industry, but failed to look into the issue
further.
S&D spokesperson on the Dieselgate scandal,
Seb Dance, said:
“Commissioner Tajani ignored growing warnings,
including a letter from his colleague, former Commissioner
for Environment Janez Potočnik, that car companies could be using defeat
devices to cheat emissions tests. Clearly, he didn’t think to ask why
the numbers – the gap between emissions recorded in the lab tests and on
the road – didn’t add up and conveniently preferred to believe that
the problem did not exist.
“This begs the question that if Mr Tajani thought the problem was
limited to the weaknesses of the lab test, why did he oversee a
significant delay in the introduction of real world testing for cars?”
MEP
Kathleen Van Brempt, who chairs the EMIS committee, said:
“Former commissioner Potočnik was right about the
improper distribution of responsibilities within the Commission. It is
not appropriate that the same services are responsible for both
the economic performance of the sector in question and the environmental
regulation linked to that activity. If the environmental services would
have been responsible for the development and enforcement of cars
emission legislation (as they are for the environmental legislation for
other sectors), the failure to detect and ban defeat devices might not
have taken place.”
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/dieselgate-former-commissioner-tajani-ignored-evidence-defeat-devices-say-meps/