Employees, component supplier and municipalities suffer / Stricter market surveillance needed / no condemnation of Diesel

In today's plenary debate on the VW emission scandal environmental and health spokesperson of the biggest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian democrats) Dr. Peter Liese emphasized effects on both health and environment. "The responsible persons of VW wanted to save some money, but they did it at the expense of environment and health. Nitrogen oxides are the main cause for ozone formation and there are causing constriction of the bronchi, aggravation of asthma and many other health problems. Due to the misconduct of the responsible persons the economic damage is now bigger than the costs would have been by complying with values. ", said Liese who is angry about the behaviour of the responsible persons at VW: " The fact that the former Chairman Winterkorn insists on his full pension and plays still an active role in the holding is intolerable for me. We need a deep examination and all people involved have to be held responsible", Liese added. At the same time it has to be examined why European authorities did not discover the fraud. "We have much more Diesel vehicles over here than in the US. However, US authorities found the problem, we did not. And some companies are very quiet in the moment. The European Commission has to take care of that", Liese said.


But Liese also warned to condemn Diesel technology as a whole. "Those vehicles are especially needed by those people regularly traveling longer distances. Also the technology is important to both car industry in Europe and suppliers. We need the Diesel in the medium term to reach our climate goals. And we can make the Diesel clean. Only the Euro 5 car of VW is affected of the scandal, but not the Euro 6. The stricter thresholds are consequently respected" Liese added.
Finally, the scandal also affects municipalities.. "The EU obligates them to comply with limits of air-pollution. This regulation is valid for fine dust up to now and for nitrogen oxide in the future. Municipalities spend a lot of money and staff on controls. It is intolerable for them to see us inattentive when it comes to vehicle emissions", Liese concluded.