6. The 129th session of WP.29/AC.2 (11 March 2019) was chaired by Mr. B. Kisulenko (Russian Federation) and was attended, in accordance to Rule 29 of the terms of reference and rules of procedure of WP.29 (TRANS/WP.29/690/Rev.1) by the Chairs of Working Party on Noise (GRBP) (France), Working Party on Lighting and Light-Signalling (GRE) (Belgium), Working Party on Pollution and Energy (GRPE) (Netherlands), Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA) (United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Working Party on General Safety Provisions (GRSG) (Italy), the Vice-Chair of Working Party on Passive Safety (GRSP) (Republic of Korea), the Chair of the Executive Committee (AC.3) of the 1998 Agreement (Japan), the Vice-Chair of WP.29 (Italy), and by the representatives of Canada, China, Germany, United States of America and European Union.

7. AC.2 reviewed the proposed calendar of meetings for 2020 and recommended to reassess the distribution of meeting half-days among “Groupe de Rapporteurs” (GRs) at the upcoming sessions of AC.2 during 2019, and in accordance with set priorities and workload of GRs. AC.2 also reviewed WP.29-177-01 and discussed the expired mandates.

8. AC.2 discussed in detail the draft programme of work (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2019/1) and proposed changes related to the work of GRE and requested the introduction of a new item in Table 1, to be numbered as 1.0, to include all items concerning vehicle automation that are relevant to all Agreements under its purview. The revised programme of work is reproduced in Annex III of the session report.

9. AC.2 reviewed the WP.29 Strategic note on priorities of work. AC.2 requested Chairs of GRs to provide their lists of priorities to the secretariat to compile as a new document on priorities for the June 2019 session of AC.2.

10. AC.2 discussed the document titled European Union Work priorities for 2019-2021 for ECE activities and requested the secretariat to transmit it to WP.29 for discussion (WP.29-177-18).

11. AC.2 reviewed and discussed documents WP.29-177-04 and WP.29-177-08. Following discussions among GR Chairs, Japan offered to merge them into a single framework document on automated/autonomous vehicles to be transmitted to WP.29 for discussion (WP.29-177-19).

12. AC.2 discussed the draft terms of reference for the Informal Working Group (IWG) on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and asked the secretariat to issue it as informal document for WP.29 to seek feedback on several open questions (WP.29-177-14).

13. The Chair of IWG on International Whole Vehicle Type Approval (IWVTA) reported on the progress in phase II of UN Regulation No. 0 and reminded all GR Chairs on the review for candidate regulations.

14. AC.2 noted that Database on the Exchange of Type Approval (DETA) will go operational by 18 March 2019 and thanked Germany for its support in hosting DETA.

15. The Vice Chair of WP.29 reported on the joint WP.29-WP.1 event during the week of the eighty-first session of the Inland Transport Committee.

16. AC.2 reviewed and adopted the provisional agenda of the 177th session of the World Forum and reviewed the draft agenda of the 178th session of the World Forum, scheduled to be held in Geneva from 25 to 28 June 2019.

17. AC.2 recalled that consideration of the package for the simplification of lighting and light-signalling UN Regulations (SLR), including the three new draft UN Regulations, had been postponed from November 2018 to the March 2019 session of WP.29. Therefore, if adopted, the SLR package would enter into force in September- October 2019. AC.2 noted that GRE had already approved first amendments to the new UN Regulations as well as amendments to other UN Regulations with specific references to the new Regulations, and that these amendment proposals were intended for submission to the June 2019 session of WP.29. Because the original SLR package would not be yet in force by June 2019, AC.2 recommended to postpone consideration of these proposals to the November 2019 session of WP.29.

18. The representative of the Netherlands, Chair of GRPE, informed AC.2 on a recent withdrawal of type approvals under UN Regulation No.16 for two suppliers and problems encountered when informing other type approval authorities. The secretariat recalled that information in the ‘343-application’ needs to be kept up to date.

19. AC.2 recommended Administrative Committee of the 1997 Agreement (AC.4) not to convene.