International

Next week the entire European Parliament will head off to Strasbourg once again. On Monday evening I am taking part in a hearing of the committee of enquiry into what has been dubbed ‘Dieselgate’, the scandal of fraudulent software in cars. The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, will come along to explain to us that she is not completely au fait with the precise situation with regard to this dodgy software, because the member states have not given her all of the necessary information. The EP will be eager to help get her more power in relation to the member states, but the real problems begin elsewhere: Bieńkowska is committed to competition between the establishments which test cars, as well as many other products. I’m curious to see how she reacts to the idea of reversing privatisation and in the future allowing only non-profit state-owned establishments to conduct such tests.

The problem of the fraudulent software begins with the firms which test products against both legal and voluntary standards. That’s big business, and competition between establishments which perform the tests is intense. Troublesome testing establishments risk losing industry contracts and thus will do their best always not to make things too difficult for their clients. They are monitored by an enforcement authority. In the Netherlands this is RDW, the body which is also responsible for issuing registration documents. In cases of that kind of task RDW is a state body, but when it comes to conducting tests on cars it treats these as a commercial activity. It’s as if the butcher were allowed to judge the wholesomeness of the meat he himself sells.

Instead of having blind faith in Commissioner Bieńkowska and giving her more power over the enforcement of EU rules for cars, it would seem to me more sensible to tackle the testing establishments. Centralisation of the expertise needed for the tests and saving the costs of competition and the associated enforcement would be much more logical and prudent measures. I’m not against Bieńkowska’s recent proposals, but what’s also needed is to be able to think outside the neoliberal framework - and that would be asking a great deal of the current European Commissioners.