Euro MPs are 'too green'
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• One of the European Commission's top road transport officials has slammed the "appalling" lack of understanding shown by Euro MPs when dealing with proposed EC transport legislation.
John Berry, of the commission's policy-making DG7 directorate general group, told fleet engineers and operators at last week's ERIE annual conference that many MEPs have failed to grasp major technical issues when reviewing EC emissions proposals.
And he hit out at the recent European Parliament reply to the commission's proposals on vehicle exhausts.
"The parliamentarian who wrote the report," said Berry, "a French MEP from the Green Party, said that all vehicles going into a roadworthiness test, be they diesel trucks or petrol passenger cars, should have a chemical analysis carried out on the fuel and that the emission check of diesel vehicles should be as exhaustive as that used for Type Approval."
That would entail measuring carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and NOx emissions on the costly and complicated '13mode" test cycle. Berry warned: "These comments on roadworthiness testing are completely impractical and show the level of understanding and comprehension that the European Parliament has on technology issues.
"If you read the report it also talks about the harmful toxic element of carbon dioxide...and how carbon dioxide damages buildings and gives people cancer," he added. "It's that type of facile comment that makes my blood boil and it's that kind of comment that Commissioner Karel van Miert will be addressing in Parliament correctly."