Draft minutes of the WORLD FORUM ADVISORY GROUP (WFAG) MEETING. Brussels, 21 February 2013

Transcription

1 EUROPEAN COMMISSION ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY DIRECTORATE-GENERAL Sustainable Growth and EU 2020 Sustainable Mobility and Automotive Industry Brussels, 07 March 2013 ENTR/D/5 Draft minutes of the WORLD FORUM ADVISORY GROUP (WFAG) MEETING Brussels, 21 February 2013 Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1049 Brussel - Belgium. Telephone: (32-2)

2 Documentation: Attendance: Chairmen of GRPE, GRSG and GRB, delegates from DE, FR, ES, and IT, representatives of the Commission services (ENTR). Summary The Chairman opened the meeting and pointed out that in the preparation for the March session of WP29 three topics should be discussed: status of the mega decision, position MS that are signatories to Regulation No's 9 and 63 and the mandate to revise the 1958 Agreement. 1. Report of the GR chairmen The WFAG recalled the oral report of the Chairs of GRPE, GRSG and GRB and endorsed the reports published on the UNECE website. 2. Revision of the 1958 Agreement and International Whole Vehicle Type Approval (IWVTA) The Chairman provided an update on the state of play of both programmes. A four-day meeting of the informal working groups on the revision of the 1958 agreement and IWVTA will take place in the week prior to the March session of WP29. The Chairman pointed out the importance of this session of the informal working groups and invited Member States to participate in this meeting. The DE representative underlined the importance for the EU to meet Japan in order to discuss both topics at a bilateral level and to reassure Japan that sufficient time would be available to analyse the issues at stake and to consult their Parliament on the final outcome on the Revision of 1958 Agreement. The Chairman confirmed the importance of bilateral contacts with Japan and pointed out that owing to the free trade agreement negotiations between Japan and the EU there is a risk of overlapping discussions. Clearly the 2 processes should not be mixed. He reminded that an important goal to revise the 1958 Agreement is to make it more attractive for emerging countries to accede and apply the UN regulations. Another risk is that contracting parties actually disengage and he recalled that Korea recently announced to step back from the Regulations to which it is a signatory to. Long term credibility and attractiveness of the Agreement are important goals to achieve when revising the 1958 Agreement. Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles Telephone: (32-2) Office: BREY 10/18. Telephone: direct line (32-2) Fax: (32-2)

3 4. Preparation WP29 meeting March 2013, notably the review of the agenda (ECE- TRANS-WP and Add.1) and status of the mega decision WFAG reviewed the draft agenda for the 159 th session of WP29, scheduled to be held in Geneva from March It was noted that regarding the 1958 Agreement, 30 amendments were scheduled for consideration. The mega decision gives the mandate to the Commission to take a position of the Union on the amendments and to vote on behalf of the Member States in WP29. It contains a list with references to amendments of existing UN Regulations and Global Technical Regulations and is part of the process to prepare for the WP29 sessions. The meeting participants were informed by the EC representative that the preparation process for WP29, which includes the adoption of the mega decision by the Council, is time critical as usual, but on schedule. Commission adoption of the mega decision had been achieved on 15 February Adoption by the Council working group took place on 19 February. The next steps were adoption by Coreper on 27 February and finally by the Council on 7 March Agreement: The EC representative explained that amendments to Regulation No's 9 and 63 noise requirements for 3- and 4-wheeled light vehicle's, respectively noise requirements for mopeds were on the agenda of the next session of WP29. To both Regulations the EU had not acceded to in the past. Therefore the EU will not be able to take a position when the vote takes place in the next WP29. The EC representative indicated that in the future it was planned for the EU to accede to both Regulations. GRB had been requested to upgrade both Regulations with advanced sound emission provisions allowing the EU to accede. The GRB Chair confirmed that this had been discussed in the last meeting and that work was in process. The IT representative stated that the amendments to both Regulations tabled at the next session of WP29 can be supported by his country Agreement WP.29 agenda item 16.6; draft GTR on Tyres The Chairman reported that according to his information little progress had been made to develop the draft GTR. The issues were being discussed in GRRF at length and pending the outcome WP29 will be updated. Bilateral discussions with the USA and Canada were on going. WFAG concluded that it should be investigated once more whether finalising stage I of the GTR is feasible for the November session of WP WP.29 Agenda item Draft GTR on Worldwide harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedures (WLTP) The GRPE Chairman provided an update regarding the state of play of the WLTP GTR development. The roadmap was confirmed in GRPE and it might be feasible to adopt the draft GTR in the June GRPE. Possible adoption in WP29 is still planned for March However, he Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles Telephone: (32-2) Office: BREY 10/18. Telephone: direct line (32-2) Fax: (32-2)

4 explained that there is still a long list of issues to be addressed and in case it would not be possible to resolve those in the June GRPE he would escalate it to WP29 in November. Important steps were anticipated to be achieved in the sub working groups convening in Tokyo in March. The ES representative asked what the expectation of the EC was and the EC representative replied that this was the same as presented in the TCMV meeting in December The IT, FR and ES representatives expressed their concerns with regard to the composition of the draft test cycle and preferred to delay its implementation in the EU until The Chairman acknowledged the raised concerns and agreed that the open items require clarification. The DE representative remained in favour to implement the WLTP in 2017 and reminded participants that the discussions on the implementation in the EU should be separated from the issues at stake in the development of the test cycle. The IT representative agreed that this discussion should mainly be held at the EU level and that it was important to finalise the development of the WLTP in Geneva as soon as possible, in order to provide a test cycle that would better reflect real driving conditions. He requested clarifications whether the WLTP implementation date is subject to Comitology or Codecision. He preferred the latter option. The Chairman agreed to obtain confirmation from the legal service to handle this through Comitology WP.29 Agenda item Draft GTR on Electric Vehicles; The Chairman underlined the importance of the next meeting of the working group in Tokyo after WP29 and expressed his hope that the USA would be able to participate in view of their restrictions on travel budget. The EC would prefer using Regulation 100 as base for the GTR, which was also the preferred option from OICA and JAMA. Acceptance by the contracting parties of this approach had to be verified in the next WP WP.29 Agenda item Proposal to develop a GTR on Quiet Road Transport Vehicles (QRTV) The EC representative reported on the progress in development of the GTR. The 2 nd working group meeting had recently taken place in Berlin. The working group had discussed proposals from Japan, Korea and Germany. The USA had published its ruling in the meantime. In general the USA proposal to install on quiet vehicles, not only on electrified but also on conventional vehicles equipped with a quiet combustion engine, a system producing a minimum noise of 55 dba below a vehicle speed of 30 km/h was not deemed acceptable by contracting parties, including the EU. The IT representative agreed that this approach could not be accepted but he feared that the European Parliament would be in favour of such a measure. The DE representative proposed finding a compromise by leaving it up to each contracting party to apply the measures from the GTR only in case when such a system was fitted on a vehicle. 4

5 The Chairman committed to share this proposal with the USA in the next bilateral meeting. The EC was going to draft comments and would share the draft letter with the participants. Deadline for any comments was set on 15 March Any other business 5.1. New approach for lighting: progress and next steps. This programme of work in GRE to overhaul the traditional approach was on-going Status implementation in regional legislation of GTRs by contracting parties. The EC representative presented a draft letter to be submitted to the UN in order to be used as informal working document in the next WP29 session. He explained that the EC was in process of finalising the notifications and state of play to the UN regarding GTR transposition into EU legislation. The letter contained 2 examples of GTR transpositions into EU legislation and provided more details on the implementation timing. The intention is to use both examples in a presentation to contracting parties in WP29 to show that implementation of GTRs follows a long process, and in some cases includes iterative steps, but that in general the EU is successful to transpose GTRs into its regional legislation. He requested participants to review the draft letter and to provide comments before sending it to the UN on 08 March Regulation on Recyclability The Chairman reported that Russia recently tabled a controversial proposal to revise the UN Regulation on recyclability in the January GRPE which prevented an agreement at the next WP29. The Russian proposal was revised, with respect to its initial version, and combined provisions from the end-of-life of vehicles and the framework directive for the type approval of vehicles. However, the revision creates ambiguity and might pose a technical barrier to development of vehicles using of new materials and technologies for which no validated recycling technology exists yet. He volunteered to discuss the issues with Russia at the bilateral level. If this would not be successful the proposal has to be discussed again in the June GRPE. The DE representative was not in favour of the Russian proposal. His concern is that recyclability requirements in type-approval legislation and certain requirements that in the EU are dealt with in the end-of-life vehicles Directive are not sufficiently well separated in the Russian proposal. He welcomed the proposal from the Chairman to discuss the issues with Russian representatives during the WP29 session Draft outcome of the review of the 2005 UNECE Reform The IT representative provided an update on the ECE reform and reported that 2 additional posts might become available to the UN transport secretariat. The Chairman welcomed this positive result for contracting parties and will express the EU's support for the outcome of the UNECE reform discussions in WP29. 5