EU ‘defeat device’ guidelines leave governments with no excuses for failure to punish Dieselgate cheaters

Julia Poliscanova, clean vehicles and air quality manager at Transport & Environment, said: “With the new Commission guidelines, EU member states will no longer be able to hide behind excuses that the law is vague and open to interpretation. But, as guidelines, they are not binding, allowing governments to ignore them and protect domestic carmakers. More importantly, we still have 29 million dirty diesel on our roads and the guidelines will do nothing to compel member states to clean them up. Only a strong EU-wide regulator will ensure that cars in the future meet emissions standards in the real world.”