Today in Brussels, during a joint meeting of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health, and Food Safety (ENVI) and the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO), a draft report on amending regulations concerning vehicle design requirements and the management of end-of-life vehicles was discussed. During the exchange of views, Piotr Müller, shadow rapporteur for the ECR Group, spoke.
“Today, in an era of geopolitical and economic challenges, we are debating regulations that could, in effect, make the European car manufacturing market even less competitive,” said the PiS MEP, pointing to the obvious problem of growing competition from China. “In my home market of Poland, I see Chinese products literally taking the new-car sector by storm and winning over the hearts of Poles—simply because they are cheaper while offering comparable quality,” Müller explained, emphasizing that Europe therefore faces a huge challenge posed by the Chinese automotive market and should take this issue into account when drafting new regulations.
At the same time, he pointed out several important issues that, in his opinion, should be included in the report under discussion. As he said, one of them is the right to repair vehicles, which should be left entirely to the consumer’s discretion. “We should not artificially decide on the consumer’s behalf whether a given car should be forcibly taken out of service,” said the ECR shadow rapporteur. In Müller’s view, it is the consumer who should have the right to decide whether they want to bear such repair costs or choose not to.
Another issue highlighted by the PiS MEP is historic vehicles still in use. “I would like the regulations to be clear so that we do not accidentally take historic vehicles out of service, which would obviously be absurd,” he noted.
Müller also spoke about the requirements regarding recycled materials. “It is my firm belief that they are too demanding and require extensive discussion, as they could lead to higher product prices,” warned the PiS MEP.
Piotr Müller argued that we should support trends aimed at keeping cars in Europe in use longer and ensuring they are repaired. As he emphasized, this is also important from an environmental perspective. “And forcing customers to buy new cars has nothing to do with caring for the environment,” he stressed.
