EU red tape 'frustrating', says Euro MP Dan

Dan Dalton was a key player in the EU deal that will see tougher Europe-wide controls over car standards in the wake of the Volkswagen 'dieselgate' emissions scandal.

But he says the legislation has taken 18 months and countless votes up to get past the parliamentary stage, and is unlikely to come into law until this time next year.

The Conservative MEP recently won the battle for 'type-approval' testing to be done at member state level, having defeated calls for the setting up of a centralised agency to complete all tests.

He said passing legislation could be 'frustrating' and 'a little bit like banging your head against a brick wall'.

"The problem we have as UK MEPs is that most of the stuff that comes through is damage limitation," said Mr Dalton, who sits on the EU's internal market and consumer protection committee.

"Most of it we don't necessarily think is a good idea so we have to tailor it to make it acceptable.

"This piece of legislation is the opposite because everyone knows there was a problem with cars and the commission was in a position to do something about it.

"It will be at least a year from now before we finally agree it. If you imagine two and a half years...you have to get a majority of 750 MEPs to agree it across around 120 different political parties in Europe.

"Even before that stage 28 commissioners have had to sign it off in the first place and 28 governments have got to agree as well.

"One of the reasons why it takes a long time is the sheer number of people involved in the process. By the end of it all the law is often very different from that which was originally proposed."

Mr Dalton added: "It can be frustrating, but on the other hand you hope that the time spent means you can move towards something that everyone can support.

"In some ways it is a good approach, but it is certainly not an approach that would work in the UK."

The legislation was first proposed by the EU Commission in January 2016 after regulators at a national level were accused of turning a blind eye to type-approval breaches by car makers.

It came after Volkswagen was found to have fitted 'defeat devices' on some of its diesel cars which allowed them to pump out up to 40 times the legal level of pollution.

It prompted a worldwide scandal after it emerged that as much as 11 million cars were fitted with the devices.

The new EU legislation will give the EU greater powers over tests that cars have to go through before they go on the roads.

However, the testing will not be overseen by a centralised EU-run body, which the commission - the bloc's executive branch - had been keen to set up.

Mr Dalton said: "It was a big battle in the Parliament, mainly because lots of people wanted a European agency to do all of the tests. It would Europeanise a national system.

"We wanted the national member states to still do it, but to have more oversight.

"A centralised body would be very expensive. You would end up employing a lot of people and to do the actual tests, they would have to contract the tests to the same people who would do the tests for the national authorities.

"I didn't see the benefit and thought it would make it easier for people to cheat the system because you are further away from where the decisions are being made and the cars are being built.

"We actually won this in the Parliament, which is strange because usually the Parliament would always vote for the EU agency."

Mr Dalton added that the legislation was 'far from finished', with crucial negotiations on the horizon with the Council of Ministers - made up of representatives from the governments of each member state.

"Once that is done we will hopefully have an agreement with them and then the law will come into force," he said.

"I'm almost certain this will come into UK law before we leave."