WRITTEN QUESTION E-0021/98 by Karl von Wogau (PPE) to the Commission (29 January 1998)

Subject: Obstacle to the free movement of car alarm installations

Following a directive of June 1992 (92/49/EEC) ((OJ L 228, 11.8.1992, p. 1. )), insurance companies are free to set the conditions for insuring a car against theft. In practice this means that car alarm devices originally installed in the vehicles by the manufacturers have to be replaced when a car leaves the country in which it was manufactured, as the national insurance companies have difference requirements in every Member State. This situation becomes strange when even high-quality car alarms have to be replaced with systems that conform to the specifications of the national association of insurance companies and that are guaranteed for service only within the borders of one Member State. The result is higher costs and risks for consumers.

Concerning the registration and bringing into service of cars, a Directive which is compulsory for all new cars after 1 May 1996 lays down harmonized technical prescriptions for car alarms allowing the registrations in all Member States.

1. Does the European Commission agree that European technical standards would be useful to make these rules more operational?

2. Would the Commission be prepared to give the competent European standardization body a mandate to elaborate a technical standard for car alarms?

Answer given by Mr Bangemann on behalf of the Commission (9 March 1998)

The Commission would point out to the Honourable Member that harmonised European technical regulations already exist. Indeed, Council Directive 74/61/EEC, as last amended by Commission Directive 95/56/EC of 8 November 1995 adapting to technical progress Council Directive 74/61/EEC relating to devices to prevent the unauthorised use of motor vehicles ((OJ L 286, 29.11.1995. )), provides for harmonised technical requirements concerning vehicles fitted with alarm systems and the alarm systems intended for such vehicles. Therefore, since 1 January 1997, Member States may not refuse to grant Community type approval to vehicles thus equipped, or those alarm systems. The insurance companies are also required to comply.

As regards this area of motor vehicle design it is the traditional regulatory approach that the Commission follows under Article 100a of the EC Treaty. The Commission drew up the above-mentioned directive by harmonising the details of the national regulations. That directive was then transposed in the national laws of the Member States. It must be made clear that the requirements of the directive draw as far as possible upon European and international standards.