Regulation Somebody Knows!

Malcolm Harbour, MEP and Chairman of the IMCO Committee (IMCO) and Shadow Rapporteur for the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) has sent an update on the latest  developments regarding the approval and market surveillance of two or three-wheeled vehicles and quadricycles.

The update has been sent out in response to riders, who have been campaigning with letter writing. This campaign was organised by one of the rider groups in the UK and other interested citizens. Mr Malcolm Harbour thanks riders for raising a number of detailed and important questions on the draft Regulation.

Mr Harbour wrote that the team in the Internal Market Committee, chaired by himself, is taking all of the points raised points into consideration. He confirms that he has had extensive consultations with motorcycling organisations such as Right To Ride. He has been extremely helpful in our own communication with him and his office.

Setting out an understanding of the political and technical processes of the procedure and confirming our own scribbling’s on the issues, Malcolm Harbour writes: “The Committee has taken its responsibilities very seriously and has given detailed consideration to the complex technical issues involved”.

He continues:

“They have now voted on a first package of amendments, but the substantive opinion will not be final until it has been voted on by the full Parliament.

Before the final vote, there will certainly be fresh amendments tabled by MEPs from different political families, including our own ECR Group.

We expect that these amendments will take into account the results of the Parliament’s own impact assessment on certain of the Committee’s amendments, which should be published on our Committee website in about two weeks.

This impact assessment as well as the March/April timetable for a vote by the full Parliament were both planned by the Committee, and had nothing to do with lobbying by external groups. They are part of a “better regulation” process that we aim to follow throughout.

There is a possibility that the working group of Member State ministries, now under the Chairmanship of Denmark, may invite the Parliament to open negotiations for an early agreement on a final Directive text, if they perceive there is a chance of reaching a well balanced compromise.

However, this is by no means certain.

We are waiting to see what view the governments will take and it could well be that final approval is only achieved after a second round of discussions and votes that will run well into 2012 or even 2013.

We are well aware of the issues that enthusiastic motorcyclists have repeatedly raised with us about anti lock braking and tampering and have considered them in great detail. Most of these concerns are being covered in our impact assessment and I can assure you that your concerns on anti-tampering will also be taken into consideration before the final vote by the full Parliament”.

Mr Harbour concludes:

“You also raise a number of highly detailed points about delegated acts. These are now under discussion within the working group of Member State ministries. The recent document from the Commission you refer to is intended to aid these discussions so that governments can better view the emerging legal framework and identify potential problems early on. The document only represents the Commission’s starting pitch. In any event, the European Parliament will formally scrutinise these delegated acts in due course, when and if they are published, as will the working group of ministries.

Finally, owing to the time required for translations into all official languages, the final version of the Committee Report is not yet available but it will be published shortly. In the meantime, a near final English version is available for information purposes”.

Malcolm Harbour MEP

Chairman of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee

Information

FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AMENDMENTS  to the position of the Commission REGULATION (EU) No …/2010 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of on the approval and market surveillance of two- or three-wheel vehicles and
quadricycles
– pdf 490kb
You can leave comments to this article at Right To Ride EU – Click Here

Share Button