29. The Chair of the informal group on REC mentioned that good progress is being achieved in drafting the UN Regulation and added that a draft UN Regulation is expected to be ready by the next GRPE session, in January 2013.

30. GRPE took note of the work progress and agreed that the group should meet in conjunction with its session in January 2013.

31. The REC Chair explained some issues that may emerge from the way the group intends to tackle the need for two levels of stringency in the UN Regulation (original version and, in parallel, a first series of amendments), illustrating the content of a letter addressed to GRPE participants (GRPE-64-04) asking for an indication of the level of stringency that they would be ready to accept. Having reported that he received an indication from some member States of the European Union to accept a higher stringency level (level 2), and having informed GRPE that the Russian Federation was the only Contracting Party that indicated its willingness to adopt lower stringency requirements (level 1), he invited other Contracting Parties to express their intentions. He also clarified that, if level 1 requirements are favoured by less than 20 per cent of the Contracting Parties, the group will have to use the level 2 requirements directly.

32. The expert from the Russian Federation confirmed the intention to apply level 1 of stringency. The expert from the UK warned that, since there is no European legislation on retrofit systems leading to the need to accept only level 2 stringency levels, the UK would see no issues with the support of the approach involving two levels of stringency by single member states of the European Union. The expert from the European Commission clarified that Germany and Italy indicated their willingness to accept level 2 stringency. In disagreement with the expert from the UK, he also stated that, should the European Union adopt the stringency level 2, then single member States would not be in a position to adopt a different level of stringency.

33. GRPE asked the experts from the EC and the UK to clarify the situation by the end of August 2012, and asked all Contracting Parties to indicate, also by the end of August 2012, their position on the level of stringency to the REC Chair.