Minutes of the WORLD FORUM ADVISORY GROUP (WFAG) MEETING. Brussels, 20 May 2015

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1 EUROPEAN COMMISSION Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs Industrial Transformation and Advanced Value Chains Automotive and Mobility Industries Brussels, 29 June 2015 GROW/C4/GG/as (2015) Minutes of the WORLD FORUM ADVISORY GROUP (WFAG) MEETING Brussels, 20 May 2015 Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1049 Brussel - Belgium. Telephone: (32-2)

2 Documentation (agenda 166 th WP29): Attendance: Chairmen of GRB (FR), GRPE (DE), GRSG (IT), and delegates of ES, UK, NL and SE, representatives of the Commission services (DG GROW). The Chairman: Mr P. Jean (DG GROW) Summary of the meeting The Chairman opened the meeting and reviewed the draft agenda together with the participants. The draft agenda was adopted. 1. Report of the GR chairmen; The WFAG recalled the oral reports of the Chairs of GRPE (pollutants and energy), GRSG (general safety) and GRB (noise) summarising the latest GR meetings and the state of play in these respective subsidiary working groups of WP29. The UK representative updated the group on the state of play in GRRF (braking) as well as on the activities in the working groups on self-steering and on ITS / automated driving. He noted that the adopted changes would be submitted to the Nov 15 WP29. The EC representative summarised the last GRE meeting (lighting and light signalling) in May Information on the bilateral negotiations EU Japan and EU USA The EC representative provided an update on the trade negotiations between the EU and USA, respectively EU - Japan with respect to the automotive sector. She pointed out that trilateral discussions had taken place how to improve the 1998 Agreement and a common working paper was under negotiation. Target was to update WP29 in its June session on the findings of this exercise by presenting an informal working document and to propose next steps to achieve these improvements. The Chairman added that the intent was to increase commitment by Contracting Parities to transpose UN GTRs into domestic legislation more efficiently, within an acceptable timeframe. The IT representative asked if the EC wanted to present this white paper on behalf of the EU and how and when the EC intended to consult the Member States. The UK representative expressed his concerns that the past might repeat in which multiple attempts had been done to make the 1998 Agreement more successful, with good intentions from all sides, but failing each time owing to practical constraints. He agreed though that there should be a continuous effort from the side of the EU to advocate making the 1998 Agreement more efficient and to invite the international partners to implement the UN GTRs in their domestic legislations within a reasonable timeframe after adoption by WP29. Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles Telephone: (32-2) Office: BREY 10/54. Telephone: direct line (32-2) Fax: (32-2)

3 The DE representative shared the concern from his UK colleague. He pointed out that other Contracting Parties of the 1998 Agreement should be involved in the discussion and welcomed that the EC would present the paper in the Council working group. The Chairman acknowledged the concerns expressed and stated that the EC would submit a working document for the next Council working group meeting taking place on 01 Jun 15, in which Member States will be consulted and in which it can be agreed on which line the EC shall take vis-a-vis the negotiation partners as well as on the EU position to be taken in WP29. The SE representative inquired if mutual recognition was part of the negotiations. The EC representative replied that for the automotive sector negotiations 4 elements were under discussion: items for short-term harmonisation, the 1998 Agreement, research and equivalence of requirements. Various avenues were explored to resolve this complex issue by both parties. Also the industry had launched a study to investigate how this could possibly be achieved. 3. Review of the 1958 Agreement The EC representative presented the state of play in the working group dedicated to revise the 1958 Agreement. A possible agreement on raising the majority threshold number from currently 2/3 to a higher number required more time for consultation with the Member States. Article 3 on mutual recognition of the frozen proposal to revise the Agreement was still subject of debate but the EC intends to stick to its position that the text shall remain unchanged. He also provided an update on the state of play in the working group dedicated to develop the international whole vehicle type-approval (IWVTA) chaired by Japan, and latest progress in UN Regulation No 0. The UK representative inquired if the EC representative had discussed the issues in Article 3 with Australia and asked if they could agree with the line of the EU. The EU representative affirmed this and replied that to his information Australia agreed with maintaining the text as was agreed on in the working group before freezing the proposal. The FR representative wanted to know how IWVTA could be taken into account in Framework Directive 2007/46/EC in future. The EC representative replied that besides full IWVTA also the concept of IWVTA of limited recognition was being developed. This concept could be used in a future amendment to Directive 2007/46 to replace part of the set of EU requirements. After completion of IWVTA in the long term the EU might consider applying this concept by fully replacing EU WVTA with IWVTA, but this would require that all elements that are currently regulated in EU legislation are also available at the level of the UN and shall offer the same level of protection or better. Currently many elements are still missing and need to be developed. The DE representative acknowledged the value of IWVTA but stated that this can only be considered for the EU if the system is robust and if major issues, like e.g. the approval data system DETA and the definition of vehicle type are resolved. The UK representative reported that he would be chairing a new informal group that has the objective to develop the vehicle type definition at the international level. 3

4 4. World-wide harmonised light-duty vehicle test procedures (WLTP) The GRPE Chairman reported on the latest developments in the working group on WLTP. Phase 1b was in process and on schedule. Possibly Japan and the EU might co-sponsor phase 2 and the mandate had to be further explored. In addition the GRPE had started to reflect on the transposition of GTR No 15 into a new UN Regulation. The aim is to allow reference in UN R0 as part of IWVTA. A number of issues had arisen with respect to mutual recognition and a number of solutions were explored. WP29 would be requested for guidance. 5. WP29 June 2015 notably the review of the agenda (ECE-TRANS-WP and Add.1) Agreement: Simplification of lighting and light-signalling UN Regulations (item ) The EC representative for GRE informed the WFAG that GRE took note of the intervention by the Commission services at the March 2015 session of WP.29 expressing concerns about the large number of supplements submitted by GRE and that WP.29 had requested GRE to address this issue. With regard to the "Simplification of the Lighting and Light-Signalling Regulations" GRE identified the following issues that would need to be addressed: (a) The impact of amendments (supplements or new series of amendments) to part A and/or part B of Regulation No. 48 on individual device Regulations and vice versa; (b) Some Contracting Parties do not apply Regulation No. 48, but apply specific device Regulations. If the common provisions of these Regulations are included in Regulation No. 48, such Contracting Parties would not be in a position to vote on amendments to these common provisions or object to their adoption. He reported that GRE noted that some of these issues would require guidance from the United Nations Office for Legal Affairs (OLA) and/or WP.29, and requested the secretariat to seek advice from OLA on legal issues. The GRE Chair will report to WP.29, at its June 2015 session, on the progress in the simplification of the lighting and light-signalling Regulations and ask WP.29 to provide guidance on the approach proposed Design restrictive requirement in Regulation No. 48 (item ) The EC representative reported on the discussion in GRE about a proposal by France to delete a design restrictive requirement in Regulation No. 48, requiring for an auto-levelling device for low beam produced by any LED light sources, while for other light sources this requirement exists only if their reference luminous flux exceeds 2,000 Lm. Should LED be treated in the same way as other lights sources, this would lead to more LED headlamps fitted on new vehicles, thus improving road safety and reducing CO2 emissions. At the request of Italy, Spain, EC, CLEPA and OICA, GRE agreed that the Chair would submit this issue to the June 2015 session of WP.29 for guidance and to report back to GRE at its next session. 4

5 Documents for publication (item 8.5. NB availability French translations) The EC representative recalled the EU statement at the last WP.29 session on the non- availability of the French version of UNECE Regulations delaying the application of UNECE Regulations in the EU. The WFAG discussed the letter sent by the UNECE secretariat following this statement. In its letter, the UNECE secretariat recalled that only the adopted WP29 documents (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/ ) notified to the Contracting Parties have a legal value and not final documents (E/ECE/324/ ) published on the UNECE website. The UNECE secretariat proposed to clarify this in a disclaimer on final documents together with a reference to the adopted WP29 documents. The UNECE secretariat also proposed to incorporate in the next WP29 meetings a dedicated agenda item to review the final version of the adopted supplements and amendments. The EC representative presented a draft reply welcoming the proposal from the UNECE secretariat, whereas at the same time stressing the importance of consolidated versions of UNECE Regulations. It is also proposed to review consolidated versions of UNECE Regulations at Working party level to give them a legal status as it was done for Regulation The WFAG agreed with the draft reply from the Commission and recalled that consolidated versions are very important for technical services/approval authorities and should fully reflect the texts adopted by WP.29. It was recommended that the delegates of WP.29 and its subsidiary bodies should be informed about the legal status of final documents Agreement Draft gtr on Electric Vehicles (EVS) (item 17.8) The EC representative provided an update on the developments to establish the new draft UN GTR on electric vehicles. In general the work had progressed well across a number of task forces, however in some areas still pending the US contribution, as NHTSA is gradually finalising its research. The aim is to incorporate possible changes to the text with a view to creating a draft GTR text as robust as possible before officially submitting it for adoption. The mandate of the group will expire at the end of 2015 and the possibility to extend the mandate with another half year, very much depending on the extent and the nature of the US proposals, was under discussion. The issues at stake were also reported in the May 15 GRSP meeting Draft gtr on Quiet Road Transport Vehicles (QRTV) (item 17.9) The GRB Chairman informed the group on progress of work of the QRTV working group regarding the associated draft UN GTR. The group had paused its activities to allow the USA to get back with their domestic consultation and research results. As there was a high pressure for the EU to incorporate QRTV requirements in EU approval legislation by mid of 2016, a parallel working group had been established to work on a UN Regulation on QRTV under the 1958 Agreement. The activities were on track and it could be anticipated that this QRTV working group would deliver the draft text to GRB for adoption in time according to plan. He cautioned though that coherency between the draft UN Regulation and UN GTR was at risk if the USA should propose another approach for the UN GTR in comparison to the one taken in the UN Regulation. 6. Any other business 5

6 6.1. Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS, item 2.3) and Autonomous vehicles (item 8.4); The EC representative reported on the latest developments and discussions in the ITS / AD working group operating under WP29 and the GRRF groups on automatic steering and on lane keeping systems. He noted that it was important to clearly split the work between the informal working groups of GRRF and the ITS / AD. The UK representative expected the working group under WP29 to be working on high-level strategic issues whereas the working group under GRRF should be defining the technical details of self-steering, which is one of the most complex and challenging elements of autonomously driving vehicles. The EC representative agreed with this view and stressed the importance of establishing continuous communication and coordination among both working groups The 1997 Agreement The Chairman noted that the EC delegation in the Mar 15 WP29 meeting had been taken by surprise owing to the initiative from some Member States with respect to the 1997 Agreement. He urged these Member States, notably the Netherlands, to contact DG MOVE, who is in charge of the file, so as to prevent uncoordinated actions in future WP29 sessions. 6