EU Celebrates 50 Years of Automotive Cooperation

July 1, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

The agreement has resulted in some 126 regulations on issues relating to environmental protection, energy efficiency, and vehicle safety.

For example, the UN/ECE agreement on electronic stability control enables manufacturers to develop only one vehicle design for the world market.

In addition to avoiding divergent legislation and duplication of administrative procedures, one single standard at the U.N. level also contributes to simplifying EU legislation.

For example, the CARS 21 Group identified 38 European Commission (EC) directives that could be replaced with international UN/ECE regulations.

Global technical harmonization is a key factor in strengthening the competitiveness of the European automotive industry worldwide. The EU contents that the more Europe regulates at the UN/ECE level, the less EU legislation is needed and the better it is for European industry.

"In a global world, we need global rules. This is good for the competitiveness of our car industry, as replacing EU law with UN/ECE rules reduces red tape and industry can adapt faster to technical developments," said Günter Verheugen, EC vice president responsible for enterprise and industry.

"This U.N. agreement has been increasingly relevant as we have been moving to a global world. This is a model for successful international collaboration which needs to be copied by other industrial sectors," he added.

Having become a contracting party to the revised 1958 agreement in March 1998, the EU consolidated the close links that already existed between the directives of the EC and UN/ECE regulations in the field of motor vehicles. This enabled a European vehicle approved on the basis of a UN/ECE regulation to be accepted in many other countries.

At present, there are 48 contracting parties to this agreement, including such countries outside Europe as Japan, South Korea, South Africa and Australia.

In addition, a second agreement concluded in 1998 opened up the development of common technical standards with countries that are not contracting parties to the 1958 agreement, including the United States, China and India. This strengthened the process of international harmonization that takes place at the U.N.

Another example of cooperation in the automotive industry at the international level is the Memorandum of Cooperation between the EU and the U.S. National Highway Safety Administration, which was signed in June as part of negotiations under the Transatlantic Economic Council (TEC).

This memorandum seeks to affirm the joint commitment between the EU and U.S. towards improving vehicle safety and fuel economy, plus to assist the harmonization efforts conducted under the framework of the 1998 global agreement of the UN/ECE.

For more information, see:

• EU web site on Automotive Industry: Global Harmonization
• UN/ECE web site on Vehicle Regulations

Source: European Commission.