Car industry: New rules on cleaner and safer cars start to apply across Europe

Today (1 September), the EU Regulation on the approval and market surveillance of motor vehicles will start to apply. Adopted in May 2018, the new Regulation significantly overhauls and tightens the previous type approval and market surveillance system. It improves the quality and independence of vehicle type-approval and testing, increases checks of cars already on the EU market and strengthens the overall system with greater European oversight.

Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton said: “Europeans rightly expect to drive the cleanest and safest cars. That presupposes the strictest controls of cars placed on the market and circulating on our roads. It also requires real enforcement and oversight at European level: that is why from now on the Commission will be able to carry out checks on cars, trigger EU-wide recalls, and impose fines of up to €30,000 per car when the law is broken. These reforms complement our work on cleaner and safer mobility, which in the challenging context of the crisis require even more future-oriented investments in infrastructure and innovation. Our efforts to restore consumer confidence, strengthen the Single Market and support the long-term viability and global competitiveness of Europe's car industry go hand in hand.”

The key elements of the new EU rules are an independence and quality of testing before a car is placed on the market as well as checks on cars already on the market. In addition, the Commission is now able to carry out compliance and conformity checks on vehicles in laboratories or on the road. For more information on this subject, please check the press release and Q&A.

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