The European parliament's environmental committee voted on Monday against new car pollution rules they say are too lenient in the light of the Volkswagen scandal which exposed loopholes in existing emissions tests.

 

The new rules agreed in a closed-door committee in October would allow vehicles to carry on spewing out more than twice official pollution limits, after many of the 28 member states demanded leeway to protect their car industries.

 

The committee's vote of 40 to 9 against them sets the stage for a plenary ballot next month that could send the legislation back to the drawing board, but where cross-party support would be more difficult to achieve.

 

Thirteen members of the committee abstained from Monday's vote - mostly from the European People's Party, the largest bloc in the EU parliament, their spokesman said.

 

"In the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, it's clear we need to urgently revise road emission tests, but the proposed exemptions agreed by EU governments are a disgrace," a Dutch liberal member of parliament, Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy, said.

 

"Harmful levels of air pollution would continue, despite the fact that emissions control technologies are available and affordable today."

 

If the January vote confirms the environment committee's opposition to the EU's emissions testing deal, it could mean a delay of up to two years while the European Commission drafts a new proposal.

 

Some politicians voiced concerns over the potential delay a veto could mean for bridging the gap between real driving conditions and tests conducted under artificial conditions that have allowed real-world nitrogen oxide emissions to surge to more than seven times their European limits.

 

"We could be delayed for months and months ... Why would we do that?" said Julie Girling, a British member of the European Conservatives and Reformists group. "Politics is the art of the possible of making things happen."

 

In defense of the October deal, a representative from the Commission, the EU executive, stressed the text was what members states were prepared to accept.

 

"This text is a compromise, you are right," Joanna Szychowska told parliamentarians. "We started with far more ambitious levels and the member states indicated that this is not what they could agree upon."

 

While another delay could give the carmakers more latitude, the auto industry's Brussels lobby said it would still prefer the current proposal to be passed by parliament.

 

"We need a decision sooner rather than later," Erik Jonnaert, secretary general of the Association of European Carmakers (ACEA), said.

 

Volkswagen is battling the biggest business crisis in its 78-year history after admitting in September that it had installed software in diesel vehicles to deceive U.S. regulators about toxic emissions.

 

In another sign of support for challenging lax oversight of the car sector, politicians from several blocs are calling for a full-scale parliamentary review into whether the EU executive or any of the 28 member states failed to comply with existing laws.

 

"We need to ... put it under the political spotlight," Green environment spokesperson and vice-president Bas Eickhout said.

 

A decision on the proposal to set up an inquiry committee will be made at a conference of presidents of the parliamentary political groups on Wednesday. (Reuters)

 

 

PHOTOS: Cars are driven on one of the ring roads in Beijing's city centre January, 15, 2008.

CREDIT: REUTERS/REINHARD KRAUSE.