EU changes its rules

Despite German resistance, the EU could soon be able to directly fine car makers if they break the continent's rules.

In what is widely seen as a response to the 2015 Dieselgate crisis, when the EU found itself utterly toothless, EU ministers have agreed to new draft proposal to take car industry oversight away from the member states.

Understandably, the German Government is said to have resisted the change with the greatest ferocity, even though it gave type approval to the emissions cheating Dieselgate cars.

Under the draft text, which has still to be debated in the EU parliament, the EU will be able to directly fine car makers up to €30,000 per car for cheating its rules. Current EU law leaves that responsibility with individual states, as does type approval (and the withdrawal of type approval) for cars.

Under today's rules, car makers can seek type approval from their home country, or the country where they build the car, or even the country where they tested the car in a laboratory. Other EU member states must accept the bona fides of the type approval, regardless of which member state has approved the vehicle.

If a country has concerns about a car, as Germany recently had with Italy over the type approval of three FCA cars, it protests to that country without EU involvement. If that doesn't resolve the issue, the EU mediates and if that's unsuccessful the EU begins its official investigation.

While Renault, Opel, Mercedes-Benz, Peugeot and Citroen have all come under fire over their real-world emissions since Dieselgate, they have been merely seen as maximising NEDC testing loopholes, whereas the Volkswagen Group's Dieselgate scandal was a straight-up cheat.

Volkswagen can count itself lucky these rules weren't in place two years ago. With eight million of its 11 million Dieselgate cars sold in Europe, the draft rules would have cost Volkswagen up to €240 billion, which would have been more than enough to see the Group broken up and sold for scrap.