In the dispute that has opened between the French State and the German car manufacturer Mercedes, the European Union has expressed itself in favor of the former, providing everything necessary to comply with Community legislation, including the withdrawal of vehicles already in circulation.
The object of the dispute concerns the refrigerant gas of the air conditioners mounted on Mercedes cars, which does not comply with European laws because it is too polluting, which had prompted France to block the approvals of the offending models.
In fact, the most recent legislation requires the use of a new mixture in the refrigerant system, produced by a Dupont-Honeywell joint venture.
Mercedes is the only European manufacturer to have decided not to comply with the EU directive (which definitively entered into force on January XNUMXst) by making use of an extension obtained from the German authority. So far it has continued to use the old type of gas, equipping the Class A, Class B and Cla models now under accusation.
The meeting of the Technical Committee, which was attended by representatives of the competent national authorities in the 28 countries of the Union, took place "in a very constructive and positive atmosphere", underlines a note from the Commission. It states that the European executive "is committed to continuing discussions with the member states in the coming weeks in order to find appropriate solutions" to the case.
The European Commission had already opened in June, by sending a letter with a request for explanations, a preliminary infringement procedure. In today's note, the EU executive states that "member states have recognized that, with regard to vehicles that do not comply with European law, corrective measures will have to be taken to bring vehicles into compliance, including the recall of those non-compliant vehicles already sold on the market, as has already been done by a member state”.
