62. The representatives of IMMA and OICA presented informal documents WP.29-174-03 and WP.29-174-11, which highlight that following the approval of the revised General Guidelines for United Nations regulatory procedures and transitional provisions in UN Regulations (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2017/107 as amended), a retroactive change in the process of granting extensions to existing type approval was caused by the mandatory application of all supplements to UN Regulations in force at the time of type approval granting. They asked about the possibility to lift this changed requirement until a sound solution was agreed upon.

63. The representative of the European Union stated that as a principle, guidelines should not be used to change existing legislation. Before consideration of possible temporary deviation from this new provision a taking of stock of the extent of the problem would be warranted. She thus invited OICA and IMMA to present a full assessment of the issue and to identify the different UN Regulations for the 175th WP.29 session in June 2018.

64. The representative from OICA reiterated the need for a quick solution of this issue as several type approval extension requests were currently in process. He therefore asked for a suspension of the application of the related part, paragraph 31, of the General Guidelines.

65. The Chair of World Forum highlighted that it was not necessary to change the guidelines and invited representatives of IMMA and OICA to provide, as proposed by the European Union, a list of cases that required immediate attention.

66. The representative of OICA presented WP.29-174-20 addressing UN Regulations under the responsibility of GRSP. He stated that it is not an exhaustive list of supplements, that identification of critical items was still under review and in the process of identification by its members.

67. The representative of Australia stated that they would be content with amending the guidelines, and then the proposal of OICA would be acceptable as well.

68. The representative of the European Union reiterated that the provisions of the latest version of the guidelines for Revision 3 of the 1958 Agreement are considered to be fully applicable at present and that she cannot agree to a deviation from those at this stage as a quick solution, pending a decision to be taken at the forthcoming WP.29 June 2018 session.

69. The representative of IMMA asked that the item identified in WP.29-174-03 that referred to UN Regulation No. 50 was also considered along with the initial list of supplements identified in WP.29-174-20.

70. WP.29 recognized that some supplements would imply major technical changes to existing vehicles types, such as those identified by the representatives of OICA and IMMA in WP.29-174-03 and WP.29-174-20. Pending further in-depth discussion at the next WP.29 session in June 2018, WP.29 reflected whether or not approval authorities should apply those supplements in the case of extensions for existing type approvals. WP.29 also noted the need to take into serious consideration a possible amendment of the Guidelines and therefore, the Chair invited contracting parties to prepare for discussions on a possible amendment of the general guidelines in June 2018.