Every year, millions of vehicles disappear from European registration systems or leave the European Union under non-transparent conditions.

Omissions

• The claim does not specify a precise figure; 'millions' could mean anywhere from 2 to over 4 million vehicles per year.
• The most recent official Eurostat data available is from 2023 (published in 2024–2025), meaning the claim relies on data that is roughly 3 years old at the time of the speech in June 2026.
• The European Commission's impact assessment for the ELV Regulation revision has estimated undocumented flows at 3.5 to 4.5 million vehicles per year, but the MEP did not cite a specific source.
• The figure encompasses both vehicles that are deregistered without traceability within the EU and those exported as second-hand goods outside the EU under non-transparent conditions — two distinct phenomena conflated in the claim.

Sources

• PrimaryEurostat — End-of-life vehicle statisticsThe total number of end-of-life vehicles reported in the European Union was estimated at 4.3 million in 2023, a decrease of 8.6% compared with 2022.
• SecondaryEuropean Newsroom — EU plans to recycle more materials from end-of-life vehiclesAround 6.5 million vehicles reach the end of their service life in the EU every year.