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  • See, hear, speak no evil: Type Approval Authorities at the EMIS hearings

    The latest round of hearings of the European Parliament’s enquiry committee into the emissions scandal (EMIS) focused on the primary law enforcers of EU testing system – national Type Approval Authorities (TAAs). This briefing summarises the replies of the authorities that attended the hearings (German, Italian, Dutch and Luxembourgish TAAs).

    Both written and oral answers of the national regulators confirm T&E’s assertion that authorities in charge of enforcing environmental and safety rules have consistently failed to do their job and rigorously scrutinise whether the vehicle complies with the requirements. No regulator: a) performed checks outside of the narrow type approval test to see how vehicles perform once on the road; b) enforced the ban on defeat devices in law since 2007; or, c) scrutinised industry’s conduct and took action after much suspicious emissions evidence came to light following Dieselgate investigations. Like the proverbial three wise monkeys they see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.