European Parliament demands surveillance authority following Volkswagen scandal

The European Parliament, gathered for its plenary session in Strasbourg, adopted a resolution on Tuesday demanding the creation of an European Union-level surveillance authority in order to reinforce the monitoring system for automobile emissions under fire since the breaking of the Volkswagen scandal.

While British daily the Financial Times accused the European Commission on Sunday to have closed its eyes since 2013 on the schemes of the German automaker, the European Parliament insisted in its resolution on the necessity for a full investigation and appropriate penalties against Volkswagen or any other parties guilty of fraudulent anti-pollution test results.

In September, American authorities sued the German group for having equipped millions of diesel motors with an application which activated pollution limiting systems while the vehicle went through an environmental test, but deactivated them while the auto circulated, leading to dangerous emission rates.

In its resolution adopted by a very large majority, the European Parliament praised the ongoing investigations in several member states and in the world, and also called on national monitoring authorities to bring additional checks on a large variety of brands and vehicles.

The Members of European Parliament (MEPs) judged that the Commission must be associated with the investigations and make a report to the Parliament before March 31 2016. The Commission responded Monday to the attacks of the Financial Times in declaring that it was certainly aware of such schemes by automakers but that it had signaled them.

The European Parliament also asked the Commission to adopt and execute as quickly as possible a new testing period for the measurement of emissions in real driving conditions for all pollutants and to work on the creation of an EU-level surveillance authority.

Following that, the MEPs recommended several additional measures. The reception and the delivery of certificates by relevant national authorities should be able to be independently examined and reevaluated in cases of need by the Commission and member states, they insisted.

In the case of non-compliance with fixed standards, the member states should be able to recall or suspend the sale of vehicles. A representative sample of new models should also be taken every year from production chains and tested in real driving conditions.

The European Parliament underlined lastly that the employees of Volkswagen must not pay the costs of fraudulent schemes of the Germany industrial Fleuron group and worried about the consequences of the scandal for the whole line of European automobiles, in terms of reputation and employment. Endit