Transport ministry pushed to block environmental organisations from taking legal action against diesel cars

Back in 2016, the German Federal Ministry of Transport (BMVI) pushed for a legal provision blocking environmental organisations from taking legal action against the model approval and sale of diesel cars with high emissions, according to a letter obtained by the public broadcaster ZDF and published in its magazine Frontal 21. “The letter is proof of the scandal that environmental associations should have access to the legal system to control the federal government, but the federal government in fact actively works towards preventing this,” Arne Fellermann of NGO Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) told ZDF.

Watch the piece in German here, and read the transcript in German here.

For background, read the CLEW factsheet "Dieselgate" - a timeline of Germany's car emissions fraud scandal.