Harmonisation has been a constant subject of discussion for many years. Until recently, the discussion centred more or less exclusively round the differences between European and American regulations. But now not only is lighting technology’s evolution greatly outpacing the upkeep of the regulations, but new regions round the world are looking at both of the existing regulatory systems and deciding they may not want to sign onto either of them. Thus, there are clashes not only within each system, not only between the systems, but also from outside the systems. As a first step toward defusing the conflicts and maximising cooperation, here is a description of the main challenges that must be resolved.
Main challenges in UNECE
1) Pressure to simplify the UN Lighting Regulations
• Of the total of 128 UN automotive regulations, 42 relate to lighting and light signalling and they are constantly under amendment to maintain them in line with technical progress or to clarify the text and overcome difficulties of interpretation of the requirements. In many cases the common requirements such as testing, approval markings and COP are duplicated.
• At the level of UNECE, all documents are translated into three languages— English, French and Russian—and it is normal for WP29 to process around 60 proposals concerning the lighting regulations each year. Resources at the UNECE and in the EU are under pressure to manage the regular amendment of the UN regulations and their entry into national law. This frequent amendment is a peculiarity of the automotive lighting world and this is the reason why the work of GRE is under the microscope in Geneva.
• At the EU level, regulations are now completely based upon the UN regulations but these have to be translated into the 23 official EU languages. This results in a constant heavy workload and major problems of keeping the EU system in line with the latest state of the UN regulations.
• This workload involves very considerable costs at the level of the UN and EU against a background of major budget reductions caused by the global economic predicament. Discussions are underway in Geneva and Brussels to develop a plan to reduce this administrative burden. Already an initiative of the EU and Japan has been discussed by WP29 and GRE has been charged with carrying out a study to determine how the approach to lighting regulation can be streamlined. It is likely that GTB will have an important role to play in this work.