The European Parliament today approved concrete proposals to prevent a repetition of ‘Dieselgate’ in the near future, and to provide proper compensation to the affected EU consumers.

The votes were taken following a discussion in the Plenary Session of the European Parliament on the final report of the Enquiry Committee into the Emissions of Vehicles, known as the EMIS committee of which MEP Miriam Dalli is a full member and the Type Approval Legislation which harmonises the rules against which vehicles are approved in the EU. These include safety and environmental criteria amongst others. Miriam Dalli was the S&D spokesperson for the Environment Committee on this legislation.

The final report of the enquiry committee states how following the evidence given it became amply clear that Dieselgate could have been avoided if the different Member States and the European Commission acted upon their legal and administrative responsibilities.

‘In this context we pushed for concrete measures which tighten surveillance controls and ensure consumer compensation. This was an opportunity to enhance legislation which until now has left legal loopholes wide open to the detriment of our environment, EU consumers and our citizens’ health. This would also prevent a similar emissions scandal from resurfacing in the near future. The European Parliament voted in favour of this amendment today,’ Dr Dalli said. 

‘As S&D MEPs we also lobbied for more rights and proper compensation for car consumers, as Volkswagen agreed a €9.4billion settlement with US drivers but is refusing to pay similar compensation to EU customers. This is unacceptable,’ Miriam Dalli added.

‘Reality is that the volume of our vehicles will continue to increase but this must not come at the expense of our environment or the safety of our citizens. The reform is urgently needed to close legal loopholes which so far have watered down this legislation,’ Miriam Dalli concluded.

The Maltese MEP was also one of the MEPs in favour of the setting up of an independent EU body tasked with the responsibility to investigate complaints against manufacturers who are not compliant with the law. This amendment, however, did not get supported by the majority in the plenary vote today.

The ‘Dieselgate’ scandal saw the multinational company Volkswagen admitting it had intentionally programmed diesel engines to activate certain emission controls only during laboratory testing, which did not reflect the same emission levels in the real world. This scandal involved around 11 million vehicles sold worldwide between 2009 and 2015.