Proposal for Revision 3 of the 1958 Agreement
Document WP.29/2015/40
29 December 2014

Proposed text, updated to reflect discussions at the June 2014 WP.29 session, to revise and update the 1958 Agreement pursuant to the project to establish an international whole vehicle type approval system.

Status: Superseded
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Previous Documents, Discussions, and Outcomes
2.1. | Report of the session of the Administrative Committee for the Coordination of Work (WP.29/AC.2)
4.1. | Status of the Agreement and of the annexed Regulations
4.4. | Consideration of and vote on draft Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement

48. The World Forum noted the final version ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2016/2 of draft Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement, including the comments received by Ukraine and the four-fifth voting majority threshold as agreed upon by WP.29 at its previous session.

49. The representative of EU informed WP.29 delegates that the document had already received positive feedback from the European Council and that EU Member States were currently in the process of consultation for consent on draft Revision 3 at the level of the European Parliament. He announced that he would provide more detailed information on a possible common position at the next sessions of WP.29.

50. The representative of Germany recalled his position at the recent meeting of the IWG on IWVTA and clarified that his Government had not been in the position to support that document. He expressed their preference to strengthen, due the recent incidents of non-compliant vehicles and approvals, the provisions of the type approval procedure to avoid possible future conflicts. He added that Germany had nevertheless to follow the EU decision as a result of the qualified majority voting in favour of draft Revision 3 as reproduced in ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2016/2.

51. The Representative of the Russian Federation informed WP.29 that from 1 January 2016 the Eurasian Economic Union used a system of the vehicle type approval for all categories and plans to start development of an electronic database.

52. The World Forum agreed to resume consideration on this subject at its forthcoming session in June 2016.

2.1. | Report of the session of the Administrative Committee for the Coordination of Work (WP.29/AC.2)
4.4. | Consideration of amendments to the 1958 Agreement

54. The Chair of the informal group on IWVTA reported on the outcomes of the last meeting. He reported that OICA had made a formal proposal to revise paragraph 3 of the frozen text of the revision of the 1958 Agreement. After discussions, the group decided not to change the frozen text, but to address the concern of OICA in the revised guidance document ECE/TRANS/WP.29/1044/Rev.1 currently under development. This issue would be revisited at the September meeting of Subgroup for the 1958 Agreement. The representative of OICA clarified he had withdrawn his proposals so as not to risk delaying the final decision on the revision of the 1958 Agreement in many Contracting Parties. The Chair of IWVTA also reported that the decision of the informal group not to amend the current frozen text was also in line with the request from the Russian Federation to keep the frozen text unchanged.

4.1. | Status of the Agreement and of the annexed Regulations
4.2.2. | Guidance on amendments to Regulations annexed to the 1958 Agreement
4.4. | Consideration of and vote on draft Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement

49. The representative of Japan gave an overview of the discussions of the IWG on IWVTA. He referred to ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2015/40 and recalled the discussion of WP.29 at its previous session on the voting majority threshold. He introduced WP.29-165-04 superseding ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2015/41 aimed at amending Article 3 on special provisions. Noting that some critical comments had been received, he added that the IWG would resume discussions on this issue and report back to the June 2015 session of WP.29.

50. The representative of EU informed WP.29 that the EU Member States continue consultation on voting majority threshold and announced to provide more detailed information on a common position in the next sessions of WP.29. He raised concerns about the late submission of the amendments to Article 3 on special provisions and stressed the importance of freezing the text for the adoption process of the third Revision of the 1958 Agreement.

51. The World Forum agreed to defer discussion on this subject to its forthcoming session in June 2015. The secretariat was, thus, requested to circulate WP.29-165-04 with an official symbol.

4.2. | Guidance requested by the Working Parties on matters related to Regulations annexed to the 1958 Agreement
4.2.2. | Guidance on amendments to Regulations annexed to the 1958 Agreement
4.2.3. | Guidance on the additional application of national provisions
4.4. | Consideration of draft Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement

51. WP.29 recalled the frozen text of draft Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/53) and the additional provisions on the equal authenticity of English, French and Russian languages (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/82).

56. The World Forum recognized that the Contracting Parties would need more time to review the above proposals and agreed to resume consideration of this subject at its next session in March 2015. The representatives of Germany and the United Kingdom noted the need for a finalized text prior to submitting to their national authorities for approval and so the World Forum agreed that adoption of the revised agreement would be delayed accordingly. The secretariat was also requested to circulate WP.29-164-23 as a separate official document.

4.1. | Status of the 1958 Agreement and of the annexed UN Regulations
4.2.2. | Guidance regarding the application of Supplements to several series of amendments running in parallel.
4.3. | Development of the International Whole Vehicle Type Approval (IWVTA) system
4.4. | Consideration of draft Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement

47. WP.29 noted the revised text of draft Revision 3 to the 1958 Agreement (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/53) reflecting the discussion of the March 2014 session. The World Forum requested the secretariat to reintroduce the provisions of the equal authenticity of English, French and Russian languages which existed in the first unamended text of the Agreement. WP.29 decided to freeze the draft revision and requested the Contracting Parties to clarify their political and legal views on this draft revision. WP.29 agreed to resume consideration of the revision of the Agreement at its November 2014 session, awaiting the appropriate political and legal guidance.

17.5. | Gtr No. 9 (Pedestrian safety)
Related and Previous Documents
WP.29/2014/53
WP.29/2014/82
WP.29-164-08
WP.29-166-06
WP.29/2016/2
Relates to 1958 Agreement |