it Is all known that today both the consumption and emissions in circulation are very different to those attained in the cycle approved laboratory. A discrepancy excessive – up to 40 times higher – in the NOx emission allowed the researchers to discover the presence of a defeat device, marking the start of “the crisis of the TDI”. The European Commission has proposed on road test to measure the actual level of emissions in new cars. In several countries they have been sitting very poorly to this announcement, among them, Spain.
The lobby of the car industry is so strong that it has been able to topple the European Commission.
The meeting of the Technical Committee of Motor Vehicles last Wednesday was going to be only a technical debate, but ended up turning into a meeting of high level where the Member States automobile manufacturers came with the knife between the teeth. The European Commission will introduce in September, 2017, a new cycle of homologation of consumptions and emissions in circulation. There is a consensus that the consumption and emissions of both CO2 as the nitrogen oxides are higher outside the laboratory.
therefore, the meeting simply consisted of a tug-of-war between ACEA (the European Association of Vehicle Manufacturers), the Member States automobile manufacturers and the European Commission to decide in what amount – on the levels of the standard Euro6 – vehicles emit harmful gases in circulation. A show in which ACEA has been worn with a speech planned to the millimeter. This discourse is shielding the industry has worked until now with the objectives of the laboratory in mind.
A speech where it should be so clear to the interests of the industry, and not those of the public, which suffers in its health excessive levels of oxides of nitrogen or particulate matter in suspension, day after day.
Spain has been one of the countries most hard with the proposal of the Commission, asking for a level of actual emissions up to 130% more than the standard Euro6.
On paper, in ACEA are the first to agree on the need to create a cycle of tests to measure the level of emissions of a car in real conditions of movement. But or ACEA or Member States with a greater weight in the automotive industry – Germany, France, Italy and Spain, among others – are in agreement with the emission limits for NOx proposed by the Commission initially: a 60% on the levels of the Euro6 (up to 128 mg/km for diesel vehicles) from 2017 to 2019, and 20% on the Euro6 from then on.
Spain even went to the Minister of Industry to the appointment. He was the Secretary General of the Ministry of Industry, José Manuel Prieto Barrio. In his speech requested that the cars may emit up to 130% more oxides of nitrogen on the levels set by the standard Euro6. A ministry that a few weeks ago, mistook the oxides of nitrogen with the carbon dioxide and tearing their clothes: he wanted to make a claim to Volkswagen the aid of the Plan PIVE, in a clear case of ignorance of the real problem.
ACEA regrets that this measure will make it more difficult to meet the emission limits of CO2 required by the EU by 2021.
Finally, after a negotiation that has extended three hours longer than it should have, the automotive industry has triumphed, before a Commission overcome that did not want to leave the negotiations blocked, to the risk of being considered as an organism useless. So politics works in Europe, as in all parties, ends up bowing to private interests in pursuit of a supposed common interest. What has been the consensus after the meeting of the Technical Committee of Motor Vehicles eventually?
The new cars will be able to issue in the test RDE (Real Driving Emissions) 110% more of nitrogen oxides in the period 2017-2019 (168 mg/km) and a 50% higher (120 mg/km) from 2019 onwards. A proposal must now pass through the EU Council and the European Parliament, which would have the final word, rejecting or ratifying the proposal of the Technical Committee of Motor Vehicles. So far, only the Netherlands remains firm in its disagreement with the Committee, demanding stricter limits on the emission of pollutants.
And this is how the automotive industry has won the game to Europe, without which neither you nor I can do anything about it.
Source: The Daily | EP
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