Approval of motor vehicles and their trailers. Framework Directive

 The committee adopted the report by Malcolm HARBOUR (EPP-ED, UK) amending the Council's common position under the 2nd reading of the codecision procedure. Many of the amendments were designed to bring the Directive into line with Decision 2006/512/EC amending the 1999 Decision on comitology, introducing the new 'regulatory procedure with scrutiny' where necessary. Other amendments dealt with such issues as the marking of authorised parts, the updating of approval requirements for certain categories of parts and the updating of the Annexes to take account of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania.

The committee also introduced new provisions allowing for EC type-approval of vehicles which are constructed or converted to accommodate wheelchair users. It introduced a new definition in Annex II  - "Wheel-chair accessible vehicle" - together with a new Appendix to Annex XI of the Directive providing for a list of decisions to be applied for type-approving vehicles constructed or converted for the purposes of transporting wheel-chair users seated in their own wheel-chairs. The list would apply not only to specially constructed vehicles but also to converted vehicles which have been subject to an EC vehicle type-approval.

Lastly, the committee amended Annex XIX (timetable for the enforcement of the directive in respect of type-approval), stipulating that the enforcement date for existing types of  incomplete and complete vehicles of category M2 and M3 should be 36 months after the directive's entry into force, as opposed to 30 months as laid down in the common position. For completed vehicles of category M2 and M3, the enforcement date for existing types of vehicle should be 48 months rather than 60 months as proposed by Council, and for new types of vehicle it should be 30 months rather than 36 months.