“Dobrindt rejects European Commission accusations”

The German government defended its handling of the Volkswagen emissions cheating scandal, after the European Commission opened infringement proceedings against Germany and six other countries over how they have dealt with such polluters, according to a dpa story in Focus magazine. “Immediate measures for a targeted avoidance of illegal defeat devices were put in place,” a spokesman for the transport ministry said in Berlin, referring to software that enabled cars to emit more pollution than allowed by law, which carmakers had installed to bypass restrictions. The EU claims countries failed to properly enforce laws requiring them to punish polluters and did not cooperate in investigations. The German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt repeated his demand that the European Union massively reduces the current number of exceptions in its laws allowing such devices, according to dpa.

Read the dpa story in Focus here.

Read the EU press release in English here.

Read more about the influence of Dieselgate on the energy transition and German carmakers in this CLEW dossier.