歐盟官員兩年前已警告尾氣檢測有貓膩

The EU’s top environmental official alerted his colleagues that motor manufacturers were gaming European emissions tests more than two years before US authorities uncovered widespread cheating by Volkswagen, according to internal European Commission documents obtained by the Financial Times.

據英國《金融時報》得到的歐盟委員會(European Commission)內部文件，歐盟最高環境官員早就曾提醒他的同僚，汽車製造商們在操縱歐洲尾氣排放檢測，他發出這番警告的時間比美國監管機構發現大衆汽車(Volkswagen)存在普遍作弊行爲早了兩年多。

Despite the warning sounded by Janez Potocnik, the then EU environment commissioner, Brussels did not take swift action to crack down on the practice but instead left in place an earlier plan that allowed the emissions loopholes exploited by Volkswagen to remain through to 2017.

儘管時任歐盟環境專員的喬納茲珀多尼克(Janez Potocnik)發出了警告，但歐盟並沒有迅速採取措施打擊汽車製造商的這種做法，而是繼續實施一項到2017年截止的計劃，該計劃使大衆得以利用排放檢測的漏洞。

Volkswagen has now suspended about 10 senior executives as part of its inquiry into the crippling emissions scandal that has rocked Europe’s biggest carmaker. VW last month admitted, in response to the US investigation, to using an illegal piece of software in its diesel engines to cheat in tests for dangerous nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

在對排放造假醜聞進行調查的過程中，大衆已暫停了大約10名高管的職務。醜聞已使這家歐洲最大汽車製造商元氣大傷。作爲對美國方面的調查的迴應，大衆上月承認在柴油發動機中使用了非法軟件，在氮氧化物(NOx)排放檢測中作弊。

In a letter to Antonio Tajani, the European commissioner in charge of industrial policy, written in February 2013, Mr Potocnik said ministers from several EU countries believed the “significant discrepancy” between how cars performed in the real world compared with in the testing laboratory was the “primary reason” air quality standards were not falling to levels required by EU law.

在2013年2月寫給負責工業政策的歐盟專員安東尼奧吠賈尼(Antonio Tajani)的一封信中，珀多尼克表示，幾個歐盟國家的部長們認爲，汽車在實際上路駕駛中的表現與在檢測實驗室中的表現存在“巨大差異”，是空氣質量標準沒有降至歐盟法律規定水平的“主要原因”。

“There are widespread concerns that performance [of cars] has been tailored tightly to compliance with the test cycle in disregard of the dramatic increase in emissions outside that narrow scope,” Mr Potocnik wrote. Cars are required to comply with EU emissions limits “in normal driving conditions”, he wrote.

珀多尼克寫道：“人們普遍擔心，（汽車的）表現嚴格遵照檢測週期進行調整，而不顧在這一狹窄週期以外排放量的大幅增加。”他寫道，汽車在“正常駕駛狀況”下應遵守歐盟排放限制。

He urged Mr Tajani to quickly propose new measures to strike back at carmakers, such as withdrawing emissions approvals for entire model lines and requiring “remedial action” from manufacturers.

他敦促塔賈尼迅速提出新的措施打擊汽車製造商，例如取消全部汽車型號的排放許可，要求製造商採取“補救措施”。

People involved in the talks said concerns at the time centred on legal techniques used by manufacturers to improve their results, rather than on the possibility carmakers might be breaking a 2007 EU law using software, known as “defeat devices”, that VW has admitted using.

參與討論的人士表示，當時主要擔憂的是汽車製造商利用合法技術改善排放結果，而非汽車製造商可能利用被稱爲“欺詐裝置”的軟件，觸犯歐盟2007年出臺的一項法律。大衆汽車承認利用了這種欺詐軟件。

At the centre of the internal commission wrangling was the discrepancy between NOx emissions recorded in laboratory tests conducted by regulatory authorities and the much higher levels detected during road tests.

歐盟委員會內部爭議的核心是監管部門的實驗室檢測中所記錄的氮氧化物排放水平與實際道路檢測出的排放水平存在差異，後者要高得多。

The discrepancies were highlighted as early as 2011 by the commission’s joint research centre . Those same irregularities, when uncovered by US investigators earlier this year, led the US Environmental Protection Agency to confront VW directly, leading to the admission it had been cheating.

歐盟委員會的合作研究中心早在2011年就強調了這一差異。今年早些時候，美國調查人員發現了這些不法行爲，致使美國環保署(Environmental Protection Agency)與大衆汽車正面對抗，促使大衆汽車承認存在欺詐行爲。