Periodic vehicle checks: MEPs ready to start talks with Council

With 369 votes in favour, 126 against and 84 abstentions, the European Parliament agreed to proceed to the next stage of the legislative process of reviewing the requirements for periodic roadworthiness tests for cars.

Under the confirmed mandate, MEPs are in favour of providing drivers with more ways to get a car checked, but do not support a push to shorten the technical inspection intervals for cars and vans older than ten years from once every two years to annually.

To tackle odometer fraud and tampering on the second-hand car market, MEPs support a new requirement for vehicle repair garages to record cars’ and vans’ odometer readings and for manufacturers to enter readings from connected vehicles into a national database. However, to avoid additional work for small and medium-sized companies, they only want this requirement to kick in if the repair takes more than one hour.

MEPs also agree that roadside inspections should screen cars, motorcycles, vans, trucks and buses for their polluting emissions and require potentially high-emitting vehicles to undergo further technical inspections.

Rapporteur Jens Gieseke (EPP, DE) will lead Parliament’s negotiating team. For more details you can check Parliament’s negotiating position and a summary of key points.

The plenary vote took place following a request from the PfE political group, challenging the 5 May 2026 decision taken in the Transport and Tourism Committee, in line with Rule 72 of Parliament’s Rules of Procedure.

Background

Last year, the Commission presented its roadworthiness package, seeking to update minimum standards for vehicle inspections, vehicle registration documents, and roadside inspections. MEPs already confirmed their position on one part of the package, vehicle registration documents, in April.