In an effort to restore consumer confidence in Europe’s automotive industry, Europe’s economic ministers have reached agreement on new rules for the control of motor vehicles before they are placed on the market.
"This regulation was drafted following the" Volkswagen case "on the handling of polluting emissions from cars," said Deputy Prime Minister Étienne Schneider.
"The challenge now is to restore consumer confidence in the automotive sector by equipping the authorities with the means to prevent such a scandal from occurring in the future."
The new regulation introduces a market surveillance system that already exists for other products such as toys and electrical appliances. National authorities and the European Commission will have the power to impose fines for non-compliance.
Luxembourg is in the process of making the necessary arrangements to implement these new rules.
"The new regime brings the stick, but also the carrot”, said Schneider. “It ensures legal certainty for producers who respect the rules. We need a strong car industry in Europe”.
In the European Union, one in ten jobs depends directly or indirectly on the automotive sector, of which many are sub-contractors in Luxembourg.
In the coming months, the Council will have to reach an agreement with the European Parliament to finalise work on the new regulations.
Even if the European Union has the most advanced technology sites in many industrial sectors, it does not currently have a real industrial strategy. The meeting yesterday made it possible to advance this issue, which has been hotly debated since the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2015. The Commission will have to submit a concrete proposal by March 2018.
“The Commission has finally submitted to pressure from member states - including Luxembourg - that has been applied for several years now, to provide the European Union with a new industrial strategy. Personally, I would have hoped to see a much more proactive and proactive attitude on the part of the Commission, as we have already lost precious time in the face of international competition”, said Schneider.
The Council also reached agreement on two legislative proposals to extend the internal market for services. They form part of the "Services" package that the European Commission presented in January 2017.
The first text concerns a directive introducing a mandatory proportionality test so that in future member states will have to systematically check that new national rules that they adopt do not create unjustified barriers. The second proposal obliges the member states to notify the Commission in advance of any new national rules concerning the services sector.
"Luxembourg was able to agree with both texts. The Maltese presidency has managed to find a very balanced compromise with the initial proposals of the European Commission, which went too far", explained Minister Schneider. "In the proportionality test, Luxembourg, together with the German and Austrian delegations, insisted on introducing a series of improvements that were very important to us, in particular in order to take account of the fears expressed by our professions, crafts, and also others, such as architects”.
Thus, the compromise text recognises the freedom of member states to define how they wish to regulate their professions. It also highlights the importance of certain regulatory models that have proved their worth, such as the compulsory affiliation system for professional chambers. "The most important thing is that these texts do not call into question our existing model of regulation of professions, such as the system of the Masters certificates”, said Minister Schneider.
Finally, the third element of the services package - the proposal to introduce a "service card" - was not on the Council's agenda, "but in the course of the discussions I expressed our reluctance This initiative which, in our view, brings no added value. On the contrary, it risks creating new administrative complexities for our companies, which do not see the interest of this instrument”, explained the deputy prime minister.
