- “Uh, tampering on emissions. Uh, but also, uh, things like odometer fraud. I'll come back to that. Uh, also very quickly. And then we are proposing also to make inspections more frequent and more targeted. Uh, we have evidence to, to show where our faulty vehicles, most likely. Um, and where will, uh, more tests make, uh, significant, significant difference. So this is sort of a risk based approach to to testing. And thirdly, we want to improve, as I mentioned earlier, access to the data that is now in these, uh, driving computers, uh, so that test centers, uh, can can not only access the information but also share it efficiently among member states. Next slide please. So the next two slides will show you, uh, very quickly the, uh, main changes, uh, that is proposed in this revision. Uh, and here I'm mixing the three directives because there's sort of a they are coherent package. So only two slides to cover all three proposals. So first of all, um, we would adapt with this proposal periodical technical inspections to to vehicles again today in a test center testing a modern car. It's not about opening the hood and looking into the engine. It's about plugging into the computer and getting access to all the data, uh, that the car contains. Um, we are also, uh, therefore including new tests on electronic safety systems. So software integrity, third point, uh, new emission test methods for fine particles and nitrogen oxide emissions to capture high emitting vehicles, including tampered one.”
Road transport environmental policy · Driving licences · Air quality policy
- “Uh, and so since they are more likely to be, uh, involved in accidents, you cannot ignore the rights of past and future victims of, uh, of road safety. Then on the question of subsidiarity, subsidiarity, as I mentioned in my introduction, once approved to circulate, you circulate, you can circulate across the European Union. And that is the freedom that we also want to uphold by making sure that all vehicles are safe to drive all over Europe. There is in the package a we think, a good balance in terms of the social impact, because with this measure, um, yes, costs are increasing, uh, for owners of older vehicles in those member states that do not yet have these, uh, tests, but at the same time, the measure on odometer fraud has a very clear positive social impact of protecting the buyers, the consumers of older vehicles. And again, you will see from the figures in the impact assessment, the savings for those consumers certainly fully outweighs the cost of these measures. And and finally, on the older vehicles, there is also sort of a more philosophical point that, um, if we were to say, let's ignore these data, this evidence, you would somehow be accepting that there is part of Europe where it's okay to have a combination of older vehicles and higher levels of fatalities. Um, that this would be sort of a second, uh, second speed.”
Road transport environmental policy · Regulation of vehicles insurance · Driving licences
- “And we know from other evidence that this does have quite a contributing factor to crashes. Thirdly, the heading here is road safety. But honourable members, I want you also not to underestimate the impact on health when we test. We need also to test the effectiveness of filters in cars, air pollution and noise. These are significant drivers of premature deaths in the European Union. We estimate 70,000 and that's annually premature death in the EU. That can be attributed to road transport emissions and therefore the health impact of, uh, detecting, uh, dirty cars. If I can put it that way, is significant. And then fourthly, something I'll also come back to. We can improve the rules to help enforce them in cross-border traffic and member States cooperating on exchange of data. Next slide please. So the objectives are to ensure, uh, that, uh, we are consistent in the way we check cars across the EU. Just to remind ourselves, a vehicle that is approved to circulate in one EU member state, of course is allowed then to circulate across the European Union. And that's why we have common standards, um, that this freedom of moving your car across Europe doesn't come with very different standards in how they are tested. And here again, uh, the two bullet points, we are testing electrical vehicles and the new methods for testing. Second point is to, uh, reduce tampering and fraud.”
Road transport environmental policy · Air quality policy
- “Thank you, Mr. Paulose. Mrs. Paulose, first of all, thank you very much for your rapporteurship on the driver's license directive that has just been approved. I think the problem is probably that we are all very busy with something like this in a very small team. I'll look into it. I don't have the answer, but I agree with you entirely. That tire abrasion is something that is of importance. Our colleagues in DG environment are looking at it. That's the answer I'm I'm getting. So let me get back to you in writing to it. But again thank you very much. On the driver license directive for the work that you have achieved there. And I'll owe you an answer on the tires.”
Road transport environmental policy · Driving licences
- “After four years, you raised the question of costs. And of course, they vary from member states. But let's say Lithuania, for instance, which does not have annual inspections. It's €23 per year. Um, in Germany it's three times or more that it's around €150 for an inspection. But I sort of suggest you put that into perspective of filling up a car. It's more or less that price. It's €1. Uh, maybe per per per year. Uh. Um. Sort of. Per month. Uh, that would be the the costs. Um, then in terms of the impact, you asked about the 7000 lives, you will see all the breakdown of the figures in the impact assessment. My team is available for your assistance to go through that. But to give you a rough idea, that particular measure on all the vehicles would contribute about a third or fourth to that reduction of, uh, the number of lives saved. So it is not insignificant. We've included it because it works, and it's an important measure. I'd also just want to echo, maybe to Mr. Olivier, the sort of the subsidiarity freedom, um, argument. And of course, we've thought about that very carefully. Um, first of all, we consider this measure necessary to contribute, to include, to reach the zero fatality vision. Um, we are also, of course, mindful of the fact that driving a faulty vehicle has an impact on other people, whether it's in cities or in rural areas.”
Road transport environmental policy · Regulation of vehicles insurance · Driving licences
- “Europe, in terms of national differences that, uh, we think is not the union we want. Um, and I also remind you, the average age of our European fleet is going up. And so it's sort of an issue we need to we need to to preempt. Um, let me turn to the other other questions. Very. But on this, um, my team is very happy to go through all the figures, um, and the proportionality of the measures with you and your assistance. It's all in the impact assessment. Um, to Mr. Danielsson. Thank you very much. On cargo securing. We have EU guidelines on this since 2014. Um, training. This is what we would like to, uh, indeed facilitate. Uh, and the idea is to, to spread that, uh, knowledge. Um. To Mr.. I think I replied already on the, uh, contribution of the various measures, uh, odometer fraud and annual checks for auto vehicles are by far some of the most cost efficient measures contributing to the positive impact you have. The breakdown in the impact assessment. Um, you asked also, um, why not, uh, go for mileage rather than for, uh, periodic checks? Uh, we've looked at that very carefully. Um, it's not easy to implement, but also if you say you only have to go to a check when your car has a certain mileage, you are in fact, increasing the incentive to tamper with the odometer and avoid the checks? Uh, this is a thing we have.”
Road transport environmental policy · Driving licences
- “We need registers to talk together. Uh, the last bullet is important. Access to vehicle technical information. Data is gold in many ways. The cars are generating information that has commercial value. But if you are testing center, you shouldn't pay for getting access to this data. So that should be free of charge. Uh, last two slides. Uh, the first one, the road safety, uh, expected impact. And again, I invite you to look at the impact assessment. It is huge and full of figures. And I only give you the headlines here. The reduction of fatalities around 7000 over the next five years. Serious injuries down by 65,000. And then translated into cost savings €74 billion. Next slide. This is very much on the health side that I mentioned earlier. Reduced nitrous oxide emissions meaning less lung disease asthma, respiratory diseases, cardiovascular diseases. Uh, that translates into external cost savings of €76 billion. So totally this package in terms of benefits is €150 billion. Madam chair, um, that's 60 billion a year. Just sort of to put it into proportion. That's almost twice of the annual expenditure of the Connecting Europe facility. So again, this is maybe a technical package, but if adopted as proposed by the Commission, The benefits are very significant because it touches so many vehicles. With that, Madam Chair, my apologies for going two minutes over time. It's a big package. I look forward to your questions.”
Road transport environmental policy · Regulation of vehicles insurance · Product passport
- “Thanks a lot, Madam Chair. And let me start by recognising, as was mentioned by honourable member, that there was a report from the European Parliament in the last mandate, and that we have used that report and listened and read it very carefully. And a lot of the proposals are indeed reflecting what the Parliament was expressing. In particular, the automata issue was very strongly expressed in this report. So that report was useful as background. Second point I want to address is the annual inspections for older cars. This relates to questions asked by honourable members. Olivier Metz. And lastly also show yes we recognise that this is sensitive. And to Mr. Giesige I sort of looked for your help and support in communicating this because indeed it is a challenge. Um, let me give you some. Let me, let me give you some, uh, some, some pointers on how we can communicate this together. First of all, all the vehicles are involved in crashes almost twice as often as newer vehicles. They are twice as likely to fail technical inspections. And of course, the issues here, as you can imagine, are worn out tires. Faulty brakes and defective lighting. Um, secondly, it is not a revolution. It is what is in place in 16 member states already. Um, if you're interested, I have the list. Um, so it's only for 11 member states that this would be different. And indeed for some member states, Belgium, for instance, it's annual inspections.”
Road transport environmental policy · Regulation of vehicles insurance
- “Um, but cheating on the mileage? Um, and there we propose that this would be done earlier by the garage, uh, that is servicing the car. This is effective in certain member states already. Belgium is one. Um, and there is therefore a known way to do that and the, let's say, economic benefits, uh, to the, to the citizen, uh, of introducing that are very significant. Next slide please. New testing methods. Uh, but also extended scope. Uh, we are proposing mandatory periodic technical inspections for, for motorcycles over 125cm³ and 11 kilowatt. Uh, that removes an opt out. That is in the current directive. Uh, again, 20 member states are already checking motorcycles. Uh, we leave the scope entirely open to member states. Um, but we do propose that motorcycles should be checked. If you look at the road fatality statistics, you will see that powered two wheelers are a significant and growing share of fatalities on our roads. So the road safety argument for checking these motorcycles is certainly clear. Um, also mandatory inspections of cargoes. When you stop at a roadside inspection, the cargo should be secured. We are then also proposing the third point mandatory annual Tis for vehicles older than ten years. Um. Um, I know that this is something that will attract a lot of attention, so I assume this will come back in the questions. So let me, uh, in the interest of time, move quickly on that data governance I covered already.”
Road transport environmental policy · Regulation of vehicles insurance · Driving licences
- “We've looked at carefully. Um, uh, to, uh, telemetry on the testing regime. Why not after six years? Well, there are certainly stakeholders, uh, outside this room saying we should have gone even further. Uh, in terms of we have tried to strike a balance between proportionality based on the calculation of the advantages. And and we see on the statistics the number of crashes leading to the age of the vehicle. That ten is the is the right balance. But again, um, that's in the impact assessment. You also asked about mopeds. Why not? Um, you're absolutely right that they are also part of the road safety statistics and not always in a good way. Um, the usage of mopeds varies extremely across the member states. This so far is an area of subsidiarity. Nothing in this package prevents member states from including uh, mopeds in, uh, inspection regimes. Um, but we have felt that this was not, uh, something where the union needed to legislate. Um, and I think with that, I have used more than my five minutes and tried to answer all the questions, but certainly, uh, there are a lot of figures and data that you will need for your deliberations. Uh, most of them are in our impact assessment, but me and myself and my and my team, we are, of course, more than ready to help go through it. Thank you.”
Regulation of vehicles insurance · Driving licences
- “Thanks a lot, Madam Chair. And may I just start by thanking the committee on behalf of DG for recognizing one of DG moves finest. And it's not easy to follow that uh, speech. Uh, it's good to be back in the House of European democracy. Um, it feels like I was. Was only yesterday. I was last here. And that's probably because it was only yesterday I was here. Um, it was also in this very room that the commissioner designate told you in his hearing that for him, safety first. Um, and that's why we are here today again with one of his first legislative proposals, uh, on road safety. Um, let me before I present the package also, thank you for the vote that you have just adopted. Uh, the road safety package. Uh, again, we are making great progress. So EU roads are the safest in the world. That's the context. Uh, last year, the number of fatalities dropped by 3%. So I want to start by saying what we are doing is working. But at the same time, last year, 19,800 people died on EU roads. Um, and the 3% drop in fatalities is still not enough to reach the target we have set ourselves. Vision zero for 2050 and halving the number of road deaths for 2030. We have, as you all know, a safe system approach. It means that we are looking at behaviour behind the wheel. This is what you have just addressed with your vote on driver disqualification. We look at infrastructure, we look at post-crash care, and we look at vehicles and vehicles is what we are looking at today because it matters not only how they are built.”
Road transport environmental policy · Regulation of vehicles insurance · Driving licences
- “Just to give an example, um, one faulty combustion engine in one car that is not detected driving around can, uh, jeopardize or annihilate the effort of 100 electrical vehicles. Vehicles of cars being bought in order to reduce emissions. So one car that is with a bad filter is neutralizing all the other efforts. So finding that one car and getting it off the road or repairing it is important. Yearly emission testing for light commercial vehicles again risk based. They drive a lot more than private cars and therefore it is proportionate to do so. Um I mentioned health. So uh, particles, remote sensing. This is a new technology that is possible coming here this morning, madam chair. Driving on my bike down Avenue. Louise, I was behind a delivery van. I could smell that there was something wrong. Um, we have remote sensing technology that is already used in Flanders and elsewhere. Where, um, if I can put it, uh, sniffer cars are capable of detecting the car in front of you, uh, while driving real time. That there is a problem with emissions. So this technology being used, we must make sure that our legislation allows it because it is easy and it takes a faulty car off the road immediately. And then thirdly, odometer readings in national databases. We want to ensure that this is recorded not only when a car comes in for checks, let's say after 4 or 5 years, depending on the national regime. We know that there is a significant second hand car market in the European Union, and odometer fraud is cheating the consumer by selling second hand cars to consumers.”
Road transport environmental policy · Air quality policy
- “When they are sold, it matters a lot how they are then developed and tested as they are used. So um, next slide please. Um, if we turn to the content of the package, um, madam Chair, you have already said it. Uh, it's the directive on the periodic Roadworthiness test. It's the roadside inspection directive, and then it's the directive. Um, this may look very technical, but just to remind ourselves that these three directives cover the entire fleet of vehicles on our roads, and we are talking about 280, 290 million vehicles in the European Union. So the impact of what is being discussed here today, of course, is everywhere in our union. Next slide please. Um, and just to reassure you, there are only five more slides. So this is manageable. Why are we doing this now? Well, first of all, the last time we did it was in 2012, 30 years ago. And since then, certainly a lot has happened. We have new testing methods. I'll come back to that. But we also have new cars. We have advanced driver assistance systems in our cars. They are driving computers in many ways and we have electric vehicles more and more so. Um, and of course they are to be tested in a completely different way from, let's say, the last generation of vehicles. Second point is also we need to improve the testing because we still have a number of unsafe vehicles on our roads.”
Road transport environmental policy · Regulation of vehicles insurance · Driving licences