Overview by the Forum secretariat of changes to the guidelines for amendments to UN Regulations to address concerns over multiple/parallel series of amendments being in force at the same time.

53. The Secretary to AC.1 reported on the progress in preparing Revision 3 of 1958 Agreement, including UN Regulation No. 0 on IWTA (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/53 and WP.29-162-04), as well as the proposed revised guidelines for supplements and series of amendments to UN Regulations (WP.29-162-18) whose main elements are as follows:

a) Contracting Parties may apply former versions of UN Regulations, “engraved in stone”;

b) establish common date (e.g. 1 September each year) of entry into force of new series of amendments to UN Regulations;

c) only one new series of amendments per year would be allowed;

d) in case of several series of amendments in force, for every supplement the respective GR and WP.29 should indicate the series of amendments it refers to. The secretariat should prepare separate documents for each series of amendments for adoption by WP.29 and AC.1;

f) the guidelines for transitional provisions established by WP.29 (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1044/Rev.1) would be amended accordingly.

54. GRE took note of the above information and expressed no objections to setting the common annual date of entry into force of new series of amendments on 1 September.

47. GRSG noted WP.29-162-18 on some concerns of supplements to UN Regulation with long transitional provision periods and the administrative procedures for the submission and adoption of such amendments. The secretariat informed GRSG about the request of the Office of Legal Affairs in New York to clearly indicate, when adopting a supplement, to which series of amendments the supplement have to be addressed to, specifically in the case of UN Regulations with different series of amendments in force at the same time, due to long transitional provision periods.

48. GRSG also noted the proposal by IWVTA to indicate in the transitional provisions of future amendments a specific date (i.e. 1 September) for the application of the amendments instead of a period expressed in “months after the entry into force”. This request would at the time only be needed for UN Regulations listed in UN Regulation No. 0 on IWVTA. GRSG noted no objection and endorsed that approach.

42. GRSP noted that the consideration of draft Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/53) was scheduled for the June session of WP.29 as well as other pending issues such as: (i) proxy vote, (ii) the final list A of draft UN Regulation No. 0 and (iii) common commencement dates for new series of amendments to UN Regulations. GRSP noted WP.29-162-18 introducing principles for supplements, series of amendments and Revisions to UN Regulations. GRSP finally agreed to move UN Regulation No. 16 to the final list A, while UN Regulation No. 14 should be moved to list B.

43. Moreover, GRSP noted GRSP-55-17, indicating possible scenarios for the introduction of different propulsion tractions into the UN Regulation in view of IWVTA. The expert from OICA stated that UN Regulations should be considered technologically and fuel neutral. The expert from Germany indicated that the solution of developing specialized Annexes, each dedicated to specific fuel systems, could facilitate Contracting Parties when applying preceding series of amendments. However, he suggested that GRSP-55-17 would be further discussed and referred to the IWG on IWVTA to verify if such a solution would be viable for all UN Regulations. He also envisaged that the issue of cross referencing to other UN Regulations should be further developed by the IWG. GRSP agreed to resume discussion on this issue and to refer in the meantime GRSP-55-17 to the IWVTA IWG for consideration.

39. The IWVTA Ambassador reported on the progress made by the IWG on IWVTA and the availability of the draft UN Regulation No. 0 (WP.29-162-04). He highlighted the ongoing discussion on the relevant content of lists A and B for UN Regulation No. 0, noting that UN Regulation No. 85 was in list A and that both UN Regulation No. 101 and WLTP were listed in List B. He echoed the comments made by the Chair on WLTP (see para. 10 above).

40. The secretariat also reported on the progress made on draft Revision 3 of the 1958 Agreement (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/53) and referred to WP.29-162-12-Rev.1 as well as WP.29-162-18. He added that the draft Revision 3 of the Agreement included some new elements:

(a) Allowing Contracting Parties to grant type approvals according to former versions of UN Regulations;

(b) Triggering the mandatory application by Contracting Parties of new series of amendments to UN Regulations on a common commencement date (e.g. 1 September each year). These elements would permit to yearly collect into a single amendment to UN Regulation No. 0 all newly adopted amendments to existing UN Regulations and new UN Regulations;

41. The secretariat added that the Group was proposing to better follow the definitions of Supplements and series of amendments to ease the IWVTA process and that a set of amendments to a UN Regulation would only be permitted once a year. He concluded that guidelines for transitional provisions (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1044/Rev.1) would be amended accordingly.

42. The GRPE Chair clarified that no further action was needed from GRPE at the moment.

Updated draft set of guidelines prepared by the WP.29 secretariat concerning the submission and adoption of modifications to UN Regulations, especially taking into consideration the pending Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement which envisions, among other things, the acceptance to multiple “versions” of each regulation. This document covers: amendments resulting from draft Revision 3; publication of new series of amendments; long transitional provisions; versions of UN Regulations; use of cross-references; amendment commencement dates; consolidation of amendments to once per year; and use of “compilations” of modifications.

44. The secretariat reminded the World Forum that during its last session in March, WP.29 had requested the secretariat to update the document on the revised guidelines on amendments to UN Regulations following discussions in the Subgroup on Revision 3 of the 1958 Agreement. The secretariat noted that it was currently discussing a possible simplification of symbols for documents with the Document Managements Services of UNOG with the goals of (i) replacing double-symbols by single symbols as of entry into force of Revision 3, (ii) indicating versions by an index-number attached to the original symbol, and (iii) introducing a modular concept for UN Regulation No. 0 which would show the applicable vehicle category already in the symbol. The WP.29 secretariat added that texts of Revisions include all previous amendments and corrections of a series of amendments approved by AC.1. The WP.29 secretariat informed WP.29 that previous versions would be made available electronically on the UNECE website at the request of Contracting Parties. The WP.29 Secretary also informed WP.29 that he had requested clarification by OLA on the legal status of documents and OLA had clarified that only the authentic texts that have been voted on by AC.1 were legally binding texts. Therefore from the date of entry into force of documents on 15 June 2015, the documents would bear a disclaimer with the symbols of the authentic texts on their front page. He reminded the World Forum to use static references to standards instead of dynamic ones in regulations.

10. The secretariat noted that no changes had been made to document (WP.29-166-02). AC.2 decided that this document should be further discussed at the Informal Working Group (IWG) on International Whole Vehicle Type Approval (IWVTA).

44. Following advice given by AC.2, the World Forum referred document WP.29-166-02 on guidelines on amendments to UN Regulations to the IWG on IWVTA for further considerations.