EU Parliament accuses seven EU countries of intending to delay new emissions regulations

In its draft conclusions on Volkswagen's emissions test cheating scandal, the European Parliament also accused senior European Commission officials of favoring Volkswagen since the 2008 financial crisis.

“In 2012, there were already signs that there was a problem with diesel emissions,” Dutch Liberal Party politician Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy said of the draft report. “If our government and the European Commission had acted, we wouldn’t have had the emissions scandal that followed.”

The draft, which will be put to a vote in parliament next year, proposes major adjustments to the European Commission, with a single commissioner being solely responsible for policy issues such as air quality and pollution sources.

The European Commission said it would not comment until the report was finalised. It will start taking legal action this month against seven countries that fail to properly implement the new car emissions policy.

The laboratory results complement the new road tests that the European Commission and representatives of the 28 eurozone countries decided on Tuesday to strengthen.

The new measure, which will be delayed until September next year, will focus on testing ultrafine particles and health-damaging particulate matter emitted by a new generation of direct-injection gasoline engines (GDI), but automakers have called for the test to be postponed to 2019.

“Regulatory uncertainty leaves carmakers little time to make the necessary improvements,” said Erik Jonnaert, head of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA).

The European Commission countered that it had already issued a warning. A spokeswoman for the European Commission told Reuters: "Automakers should have started designing vehicles with low particle emissions long ago. Public health is at stake."

Transport & Environment campaign group said cheap technology to reduce particulate matter emissions from GDI engines already existed, such as petrol particulate filters (GPF), and that GDI engines emitted more than 10 times more particulate matter than previous generation engines.

A year after Volkswagen admitted to cheating tests in the United States, EU insiders revealed that France and Germany are expected to support the EU's proposal to push for stricter new emissions rules next year.

However, the attitudes of Italy, Spain and Eastern European countries are still unclear and it is uncertain whether they will also support the bill.

"Voting is a double-edged sword," said Greg Archer, head of T&E.

If the new rules are passed, they will require adjustments to engine cold starts to reduce pollution emissions during short urban driving, and will also require automakers to provide consumers with displacement performance information.

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