Liikanen car safety plan ignites row over regulation blueprint

Date: 01/02/01

By Peter Chapman

Eekki Liikanen next week will ignite a fierce debate between consumer groups and industry over the way EU policy makers should set rules and regulations in the fast moving 'new economy'.

The European Enterprise Commissioner is preparing to host formal hearings with auto makers, safety campaigners and other stakeholders to canvass their views on his plan to cajole industry to design more pedestrian-friendly cars.

Liikanen's move is one of the first concrete examples of the new concept of 'co-regulation', which is gathering momentum within the Commission as it considers the future of Union-level rule-setting. This comes amid fears that the slow pace of the legislative process could render formal laws obsolete before they see the light of day.

But critics are preparing to voice concerns that Liikanen's plan - and similar schemes being plotted by other Commissioners, including consumer chief David Byrne - could set a damaging precedent if extended to all areas of EU policy making. They say co-regulation could result in arbitrary policy goals being imposed upon industry without a chance for all stakeholders to air their views.

Liikanen wants the automobile industry to come up with its own system for manufacturing safer car fronts in a bid to reduce pedestrian deaths resulting from faulty designs of bonnets and bumpers. He believes it would be quicker and more effective to ask industry to offer its own solution to the problem than to issue a binding directive packed with technical requirements that would take years to implement.

Only if the automobile sector fails to produce a satisfactory agreement by a June deadline will the Commissioner issue proposals for a formal directive. "If the industry solution is satisfactory you would save four years waiting for a formal directive to be adopted," he told European Voice.

But consumer groups argue the industry cannot be trusted to come up with its own solution to the pedestrian safety problem and are demanding that Liikanen issue the directive.

MEPs, who also want binding rules, say Liikanen's plan to avoid legislation means the initiative will escape the scrutiny of the EU's only democratically elected body.

"In our view this is being used as a smokescreen for avoiding legislation," said Mark Watts, the transport spokes-man for the UK's socialist group. "Liikanen is by-passing Parliament and treating its views with contempt."

The new legislative model is also being watched by the Union's major trading partners. "It is clear that any change in the EU regulatory environment has very significant implications, and we care about its impact on business," said a US government source. "Our key concern on all of this is 'transparency' - which is something we are saying to the Commission ad nauseam."

The source said Washington would voice its fears over co-regulation at a conference in Brussels next week organised by the American Chamber of Commerce and also attended by Liikanen.

Industry sources insisted this week they were not firmly opposed to co-regulatory efforts, for example where firms seek the 'seal of approval' of policy makers for their voluntary schemes. But they argue that authorities must not be tempted to interfere in industry-led programmes if they function well.

"We have been calling for a long time for a more creative approach to regulation," said Susan Pointer of the UK's Confederation of British Industry. "However we will be watching very closely how it is done."

Erkki Liikanen is set to ignite a fierce debate between consumer groups and industry over the way EU policy makers should set rules and regulations in the fast moving 'new economy'.