A European Parliament vote on legislation updating EU noise limits for vehicles has been postponed after it became clear, according to the green transport lobby Transport & Environment (T&E), that an amended draft text had been written by a Porsche executive, and would have weakened the standards that have been in force for the past 15 years.
T&E’s 28 September newsletter reported that throughout the latest legislative attempt to tighten EU traffic noise standards, NGOs have been stressing that changes to testing procedures should not be allowed to lead to weakening of noise limits. In the past, proposals revising emissions standards have appeared on paper to be a tightening of existing limits, but in reality would have made no difference to noise levels being experienced by urban residents, according to the NGO.
The European Parliament’s environment committee was due to vote on the Commission’s proposals in June, but the vote was postponed until September to allow a compromise to be worked out. T&E claims the compromise amendment was written by Porsche executive Hans-Martin Gerhard, and reported that “during a bad-tempered meeting of political groupings, Miroslav Ousky, the Czech MEP who is steering the legislation through Parliament, defended the compromise as his own but failed to convince other MEPs.
“Ousky,” continued the T&E account, “then held a news conference at which he accused T&E of trying to blackmail him by threatening to reveal Porsche’s links with the compromise unless he tightened the noise limits. He said he had only taken a Porsche template and put different figures into it, but gave no electronic proof to back his statement. T&E rejected the accusation of blackmail, adding: ‘We had no contact with Mr Ousky – he and his compromise have been discredited, not blackmailed. If he feels intimidated by us, it is because we have exposed his bias.”
T&E’s Greg Archer said: “These totally biased proposals from Mr Ousky would lead to existing 15-year-old noise limits being dramatically loosened, and many vehicles would be exempted from regulations for years. Unsurprisingly, they also include extra allowances for sports cars.”
T&E went on to claim that in 2009 Porsche tried to influence the United Nations’ UNECE regulatory body by proposing traffic noise standards that, if adopted, would have made it possible for cars to be up to 10 times louder than currently permitted. In June 2012, alleged T&E, Hans-Martin Gerhard suggested that residents should be protected from traffic noise by councils being required to build “huge noise barriers” and “redesigning urban areas.”
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee is expected to vote on traffic noise proposals on 10 October.
