ECR Group

#EuropeanParliament: 'One week in California? This is not a travel agency!' says MEP

Published

10 years ago

April 8, 2016

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Hans-Olaf Henkel, European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) coordinator and shadow rapporteur for the inquiry committee on emission measurements in the automotive sector (EMIS), complained about the mission proposals put forth by his colleagues from other groups.

He said: "The Socialists, Liberals and Greens suggested a trip to California for a week in July, August or September to talk to three organizations, one of which, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), has an office in Brussels. ICCT will be speaking soon at a witness hearing in the committee. Representatives of the other two institutions, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), can easily be invited to Brussels, instead of sending an entire delegation at taxpayers' expenses to the United States. One week in California? This is not a travel agency!" He strongly rejected the proposal and his position ended up prevailing.

He suggested sticking to the committee's mandate instead. "The point is to identify gaps in the implementation of emission regulations. We need to focus on the role of national and European authorities. That is why I, on behalf of my group, submitted a written question for the next hearing which the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the major European research facility, will attend. In the JRC report from 2013, two years before the Volkswagen emissions scandal, the centre warned EU officials of the dangers of defeat devices. We want to know which officials and institutions they had approached and what the exact reactions were. This needs clarification!" he added.

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