Keith Taylor MEP: "Dieselgate is not a problem of too much Europe, but too little"
Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South East, is joining fellow MEPs in calling for the creation of a new independent surveillance agency ahead of a vote on the findings and recommendations of the committee inquiry into the Dieselgate scandal.
The European Parliament's Environment Committee, of which Mr Taylor is a member, has already voted to back the establishment of a new EU-wide agency to guarantee independent enforcement of EU emissions legislation.
Keith, who is also a member of the European Parliament's Transport Committee and a vocal campaigner on air quality issues, said ahead of the vote on Tuesday (4 April):
"The dieselgate inquiry shows unequivocally that EU emission limits, far from simply being ignored by some car manufacturers, were the subject of deliberate fraud with criminal intent, through the use of so-called ‘defeat devices’ which trick the test procedure into thinking that the car produces much lower nitrogen oxide emissions than it does on the roads. Nitrogen oxides react in the atmosphere to form nitrogen dioxide, which is toxic to human health."
"The inquiry is clear that member states and the EU Commission both failed to act on emissions fraud and are not sufficiently impartial to ensure a similar scandal does not happen again. It is clearly not enough to simply ask our national governments and the Commission to do better next time."
"The establishment of an EU-wide independent and neutral surveillance body, that has the power to test vehicle emissions in the laboratory as well as in real driving conditions, is absolutely essential for the health and wellbeing of the people of Europe, who have twice been the victims of Dieselgate; from being exposed to toxic air pollution and having their rights as consumers disregarded."
"Dieselgate is not a problem of too much Europe, but too little. The UK government's promise of a bonfire of regulations and the fact that Tory MEPs tried to water down this report gives British citizens an alarming insight into what kind of (lack of) protections we can look forward to outside of the EU."