A4-0188/95

Resolution on the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on 'The Automobile Industry - Current Situation, Challenges, Strategy for the Future and Proposals for Action¨

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament on the European Union Automobile Industry (COM(94)0049 - C3-0158/94),

- having regard to the Commission's previous communication on the car industry,

- having regard to its resolution of 17 November 1993 on the automobile industry ((OJ C 329, 6.12.1993, p. 213.)),

- having regard to submissions from parties concerned,

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy and the opinions of the Committee on Research, Technological Development and Energy, the Committee on External Economic Relations, the Committee on Social Affairs and Employment, the Committee on Regional Policy, the Committee on Transport and Tourism and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Protection (A4-0188/95),

A. whereas a dynamic and successful automobile industry is vital to the prosperity of Europe - accounting for nearly 2% of total GDP in the EU and 1.8 million jobs,

B. whereas the demands on the automobile industry as regards technology, environmental compatibility, production processes, international competition and customer demand for safer, cleaner, more reliable and qualitatively better cars have changed fundamentally,

C. whereas the strong recovery in sales of almost 6% in 1994 has been followed by a marked slowdown to just 0.2% in the first four months of this year,

D. whereas the fall in sales on the automobile market has had an extremely adverse impact on employment, according to a Commission study which has shown a loss of 400 000 jobs in the supply industries alone,

E. whereas the automobile industry in Europe faces the task of developing the car of the future and competing with similar efforts of the major manufacturers of Japan and the USA,

F. whereas the automobile and related components industries, in partnership with the Commission and Member States, must continue to improve levels of investment in research, environmental compatibility and technological development, and in education and training to enhance productivity and competitiveness,

G. supporting the objective of developing environmentally friendly, lean produced, intelligent, quality and safe cars for the year 2000 and beyond,

H. concerned at the weakness of the Commission's strategy for the automobile sector which remains constrained by its multi-sectoral approach and the limitations on its support for near-market investment in research and technological development,

I. believing that there should be a specific strategy for the European automobile industry to ensure that it remains a competitive and world class industry producing the car of the future,

J. believing that such a strategy must be informed by the wider needs of transport and mobility in Europe; welcoming Commissioner Kinnock's recently established task force on 'Intermodality in Transport' which can play a valuable role in developing an integrated transport policy for the European Union,

K. relieved that the recent agreement reached between the USA and Japan has prevented an all-out trade war between those two countries and that the multilateral system and the rules of the World Trade Organization have not been subverted,

L. concerned that the agreement reached on 29 June 1995 between the USA and Japan will adversely affect European vehicle manufacturers and suppliers,

M. welcoming the Commission's recent announcement of a seven-year extension of the block exemption for car distribution arrangements;

N. welcoming the forthcoming Commission/European Parliament 2nd Forum of the European Motor Vehicle Industry to be held in Stuttgart (5-6 October 1995) which provides an important opportunity to consider the Commission's communication and this resolution,

1. Calls on the Commission to develop a specific strategy for the European automobile industry comparable in scale to the similar efforts already underway in Japan and the USA, in particular, by:

(a) broadening the scope and the work programme of the recently formed Commission Joint Task Force on the Car of Tomorrow,

(b) reappraising the Commission's policies and levels of funding for automotive R& TD, in particular to ensure higher levels of safety, notably the safety of pedestrians, and a diminution of pollution of individual mobility,

(c) establishing a High-Level Panel made up of senior representatives of the industry, social partners, motoring organisations/user groups, the Parliament and the Commission to meet three times a year to review the impact of the range of EU policies as they affect the automobile industry, including also the review of the implementation and efficiency of the new block exemption on car distribution and servicing agreements,

(d) coordinating European R& TD programmes relating to automobiles with national research efforts; research and development concerning motor vehicles under the Community's R& D programmes by the 'mixed group' of representatives of the industry and the Commission's services proposed in the Commission communication entitled 'Research and technological development - Achieving coordination through cooperation' should be launched and its transparency ensured; appropriate involvement of the European Parliament is essential in this context,

(e) building on the successful groundwork that has been done in telematics research; it should be geared to mobility rather than merely to the car, and further development to complete traffic management systems should be the aim; incentives should be provided for the rapid implementation of the results; account should be taken of data protection requirements in this context,

(f) taking greater account of the socio-economic aspects of the car of the future, e.g. its effects on infrastructure, the environment, employment, the role of small and medium-sized enterprises, urban development and external costs,

(g) supporting efforts to improve working conditions and guarantee the wage levels expected in this sector;

2. Emphasizes the importance of boosting demand to stimulate growth in the European automobile industry and calls on the Commission to submit proposals to achieve this objective;

3. Stresses the importance of having an increasingly well-trained and skill- intensive labour force, which will enable new jobs to be created, based on creativity, innovation and quality, as well as generating its own momentum as part of the development of the information society and the adaptation of workers to the structural changes in industry, thereby contributing in the long term to the creation of new jobs and stable employment;

4. Calls on the Commission to encourage Member States to provide fiscal incentives to scrap old cars for new and to carry out an assessment of the potential benefits of a European-wide incentive scheme which would both stimulate activity in the industry and modernise the car population, thereby reducing vehicle emissions;

5. Calls on the Commission to complete the Single Market as quickly as possible, in particular to bring forward outstanding draft Directives in the framework of European Whole Type Approval and proposals for the harmonisation of taxes related to the purchase, registration, and use of a car, and to ensure that the market for the supply of original spare parts for motor cars, currently subject to the same exemption from competition rules, is liberalized in tandem with the market for cars themselves;

6. Calls on the Commission to submit a proposal for a financial contribution to assist the work of the Task Force on the Car of Tomorrow as part of the supplementary financing of the fourth framework research programme, if an adequate level of appropriations is available for this purpose. A decision will be taken on the proposal in 1996 during the revision of the fourth framework research programme. This calls for an action plan with clear priorities. It should include low and zero emission vehicle technologies (fuel cells, hybrid engines, use of alternative fuels such as regenerative raw materials, improved existing engine systems (both petrol and diesel) as well as electronic propulsion systems), telematics-supported integrated mobility systems and socio-economic back-up research. In parallel with the work of the Task Force, the Commission and the Member States must push through the market application of low and zero emission vehicles and telematics-supported mobility systems, in particular in conurbations, through fiscal and regulatory instruments;

7. Calls on the Commission to ensure that the components industry gains as much benefit as possible from Commission support for R& TD given the key importance of this sector to the strength of the automobile industry as a whole; the components industry must be more heavily involved in measures to encourage technology transfer and the development of cooperative networks;

8. Calls on the Commission to continue to support investment in education and training within the automobile industry and to make greater use of the Community's financial resources under the Leonardo da Vinci and Socrates programmes, and measures to encourage the adaptation of workers to industrial change and to changes in production systems, and calls for an investigation of the possibility of conducting a pan-European best practice training and industrial adaptation audit;

9. Calls on the Commission to ensure, in particular, that the special requirements of small and medium sized enterprises and their contributions to the automobile industry are taken fully into account, that programmes such as ADAPT are constantly monitored as to their 'user friendliness¨ to SMEs, and that SMEs are afforded genuine key partner status with regard to problem solving in the automobile industry;

10. Calls on the Commission to develop the highest attainable standards consistent with scientific and technical developments in vehicle safety and environmental compatibility and, specifically within the framework of European Whole Type Approval, to support:

(a) the introduction of an Offset Deformable Barrier frontal impact test standard and a 300mm Ground Clearance Barrier side impact test on early but realistic lead times,

(b) the introduction of a child safety seat system as a mandatory requirement as soon as possible based upon the ISOFIX concept that has been developed for the International Standards Organization,

(c) a ban on 'Bull Bars' and the encouragement of more 'pedestrian friendly' vehicle designs,

(d) a mandatory requirement for seat belts in buses and coaches and measures to promote their roadworthiness;

11. Calls on the Commission to assist the development of a European-wide new car assessment programme testing new models for crashworthiness using the most realistic front and side impact test procedures to encourage wider consumer awareness and to promote a market for safety performance;

12. Calls on the Commission to encourage the development of environmentally friendly cars and specifically to develop a low-emission car with a fuel consumption of 3 litres per 100km suitable for everyday use, and to develop a comprehensive range of measures to limit levels of car pollution as follows:

(a) action against poorly maintained vehicles (so-called 'Gross Polluters') by encouraging use of remote sensing equipment and the introduction of a European-wide standard for vehicle roadworthiness to include emission tests,

(b) the mandatory fitting of On-Board Diagnostic Systems (so-called 'Green Box' systems) within the framework of European Whole Type Approval and to establish common EU-wide information standards (including signals, fault codes, digital information interchange, test equipment and diagnostic tools and connectors) to enable easy diagnosis and repair,

(c) initiatives to establish a legal framework in the European Union for integrated concepts of automobile recycling and the avoidance of waste in the automobile sector; recyclability must be given high priority in R& TD automobile development programmes,

(d) further research of new fuels and propulsion and engine technologies as being carried out by the Joint Auto-Oil programme,

(e) measures to reduce car noise levels, especially by new tyre tread designs and road surfaces,

(f) submission forthwith of a proposal on exhaust gas limit values and reduction in consumption in the year 2000. Efforts should be made to ensure a common proposal for cars and light commercial vehicles;

13. Calls on the Commission to continue to monitor closely all customs and non- customs barriers impeding the access of European cars to third country markets, and, in particular, to encourage South Korea to remove all remaining trade obstacles - especially non-tariff barriers - to the access of European cars and components to their market; calls on it also to monitor adherence to the 1991 EU-Japan Understanding on the basis of the Commission's written understanding of the elements of consensus and to defend a rules-based open international trading system;

14. Calls on the Commission to promote and support the dialogue on work time models that safeguard employment and to monitor the dialogue on the necessary structural change so that suitable measures can be taken to oversee the process of modernising production structures; particular emphasis should be placed in this context on safeguarding employment;

15. Calls on the Commission to stimulate measures to promote model projects with a view to accelerating development towards integrated transport concepts combining different means of transport; the transition from automobile manufacturer to mobility company must be supported;

16. Calls on the Commission to achieve better coordination of the various regionally significant provisions for the automobile industry (research programmes, guidelines, ESF, etc.), on the basis of cooperation between the Member States and with the participation of such regional operators as the two sides of industry, local and regional authorities and associations;

17. Calls on the Commission to develop a monitoring system concerning relocations of automobile enterprises and take measures against the 'subsidy shopping¨ practices of big firms; asks the Commission to give Parliament a regular report on relocations and public subsidies for the automotive branch in Europe;

18. Calls on the Commission to seek international cooperation on minimum standards relating to working hours, social conditions and the environment so that there may be a common response to global environmental problems and unfair competitive advantages may be eliminated;

19. Calls on the Commission to look into the precise effect on European vehicle manufacturers and suppliers of the agreement reached on 29 June 1995 between the USA and Japan and to share in monitoring the agreement in order to ensure that all companies can benefit from the further opening up of the Japanese market;

20. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.