Registration documents for motor vehicles and their trailers

Commissioner Kinnock said that he could not accept Amendments Nos 1 and 3 as these were not appropriate within the current procedure and did not relate to the substance of the proposed changes. However, he could accept Amendment No 4 which called on the Commission to send the Member States copies of all registration documents which would be a useful means of spreading relevant information. Likewise, Amendment No 5 was acceptable as it required the inclusion of the engine identification number on the registration document. However, Mr Kinnock explained that the effect of Amendments Nos 2 and 6 would be to require replacement registration documents when certain new spare parts were installed in the vehicle, including for example a replacement window. This would obviously prove extremely bureaucratic. Finally, he said that Amendment No 7, which would make inclusion of a vehicle’s environmental characteristics in the registration documents compulsory rather than optional, could be accepted. Since such details could play a role in taxation regimes and could also be subject to roadside checks, the Commission acknowledged the sense of making such information mandatory .