BRUSSELS. The uncontrolled controller who abuses his position. It is a twelve-star risk that faces Europe and which could undermine its credibility. The European Commission has always been the guardian of the treaties and rules, but the shadow of actions in derogation of its obligations and mandate is now falling on the Community executive. There is a strong accusation, that of having “illegally modified” the regulation on the approval of cars and light commercial vehicles, with actions beyond the foreseen competences, snatched from the Council and Parliament.
The political storm that threatens to hit the European Commission comes from Luxembourg, and from what the European Court of Justice will be called upon to decide in the coming months. But Advocate General Michal Bobek has already drawn his conclusions, and worrying scenarios would open up if the Court were to follow the toga’s orientation.
It should be remembered that the current college of commissioners has nothing to do here. The choices and actions of the Juncker Commission are being questioned in its response to the dieselgate scandal. In the last European legislature it turned out that Volkswagen had rigged the emissions data of its diesel engines. A real bomb that fully invested the community executive, held responsible for the lack of controls.
The response of the European Commission materialized with the modification of the engine emission test rules. It was established, with a specific regulation amending the regulations in force, that the laboratory tests should have given way to simulations of road tests. In deciding this, the limits on greenhouse gas emissions, in particular nitrogen caps, were also revised. It is this second change that puts the Juncker Commission in the unenviable situation of being accused of breaking the rules.
The limits on emissions were the result of an inter-institutional agreement between Parliament and the EU Council, and therefore only the Parliament and the Council could have changed them. The Commission should have presented a proposal to the two institutions on which the two co-legislators would then have to make a decision, instead the Juncker team did it all by themselves.
“Only the authors of the type-approval regulation, that is the Parliament and the Council, were entitled to change the emission limits, while the Commission has no competence in this regard”, the remarks of the Advocate General, convinced that “the Commission has illegally changed the emission limits in force ».
Here then is that the ruling on an appeal presented by the mayors of Brussels, Paris and Madrid on a very technical issue, risks producing a ruling with a considerable political significance. It may have been the rush and the need to respond to a scandal of unprecedented dimensions, but it is certain that the accusations for the work of the community executive are not small.