欧盟官员两年前已警告尾气检测有猫腻

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.

据英国《金融时报》得到的欧盟委员会(European Commission)内部文件，欧盟最高环境官员早就曾提醒他的同僚，汽车制造商们在操纵欧洲尾气排放检测，他发出这番警告的时间比美国监管机构发现大众汽车(Volkswagen)存在普遍作弊行为早了两年多。

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.

尽管时任欧盟环境专员的乔纳兹珀多尼克(Janez Potocnik)发出了警告，但欧盟并没有迅速采取措施打击汽车制造商的这种做法，而是继续实施一项到2017年截止的计划，该计划使大众得以利用排放检测的漏洞。

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.

在对排放造假丑闻进行调查的过程中，大众已暂停了大约10名高管的职务。丑闻已使这家欧洲最大汽车制造商元气大伤。作为对美国方面的调查的回应，大众上月承认在柴油发动机中使用了非法软件，在氮氧化物(NOx)排放检测中作弊。

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月写给负责工业政策的欧盟专员安东尼奥吠贾尼(Antonio Tajani)的一封信中，珀多尼克表示，几个欧盟国家的部长们认为，汽车在实际上路驾驶中的表现与在检测实验室中的表现存在“巨大差异”，是空气质量标准没有降至欧盟法律规定水平的“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.

珀多尼克写道：“人们普遍担心，（汽车的）表现严格遵照检测周期进行调整，而不顾在这一狭窄周期以外排放量的大幅增加。”他写道，汽车在“正常驾驶状况”下应遵守欧盟排放限制。

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.

他敦促塔贾尼迅速提出新的措施打击汽车制造商，例如取消全部汽车型号的排放许可，要求制造商采取“补救措施”。

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.

参与讨论的人士表示，当时主要担忧的是汽车制造商利用合法技术改善排放结果，而非汽车制造商可能利用被称为“欺诈装置”的软件，触犯欧盟2007年出台的一项法律。大众汽车承认利用了这种欺诈软件。

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.

欧盟委员会内部争议的核心是监管部门的实验室检测中所记录的氮氧化物排放水平与实际道路检测出的排放水平存在差异，后者要高得多。

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.

欧盟委员会的合作研究中心早在2011年就强调了这一差异。今年早些时候，美国调查人员发现了这些不法行为，致使美国环保署(Environmental Protection Agency)与大众汽车正面对抗，促使大众汽车承认存在欺诈行为。