EU to take legal action against Daimler

GTR_Daimler

The European Union have said that they will take legal action against Daimler as they have refused to remove the refrigerant R134a from new cars that they make.

The European Commission is bringing into place these proceedings of which Daimler has two months to respond. They are a German car manufacturer and they have failed to comply with the Mobile Air Conditioning Directive.

Antonio Tajani is the Trade Commissioner and he has said that he will be writing to three countries include the UK looking for answers as to why they registered vehicles made by Daimler when they clearly weren’t following the directive.

Fortunately for Daimler, they are backed by the German Government who has said that they are concerned of flammability issues and want some more time to develop a C02 based refrigerant for their vehicles. The legal proceedings will be the most recent attempt by the European Commission to bring and end to this feud as Daimler have been failing to comply for the last year.

When Daimler’s last refusal to install the refrigerant came about last autumn the European Commission sent the Joint Research Centre to investigate the evidence that Daimler produced for their decision. The final decision on this is expected to come about on the 24th of January however it is likely that there will be a huge amount of pressure on Daimler to make some changes.

In other news Defra has released their progress report on F-Gas from the UK Government. The report states the same information that has already been made available to the public by the European bodies. However, it does also give some clues as to when the legislation is going to come into play in the UK. Industry stakeholders are meeting in April and Defra will be presenting the UK’s position.

The report states, “The UK Government supports in principle the further proportionate regulation of the use of F gases and the broad approach taken in the draft regulation. We support a phase down in availability of HFCs, along with other elements that encourage and support the move towards more climate friendly alternatives to F gases where technically and economically feasible alternatives are available and where their use would result in lower overall greenhouse gas emissions. We believe that the Commission’s proposal as currently amended will fully support UKs objectives, providing ambitions, proportionate and achievable regulation.”

Defra have indicated that F gas legislation will come into practice in January 2015.