EU rejects German transport minister worries about diesel decommissions

The European Commission does not want to retroactively change regulations on compliance with emission limits for cars, which could lead to the decommissioning of millions of diesel vehicles.

EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, in a letter to German Transport Minister Volker Wissingwho had complained about the rules, said the Brussels authority has no intention of making retroactive changes and imposing additional administrative burdens on car manufacturers.

The commission also does not want to take any further measures that would penalize EU citizens who purchased cars in good faith under the new rules. The letter was made available to dpa.

Wissing had previously warned the commission against the decommissioning of millions of diesel vehicles and called for clarification in a terse letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Behind the contentious back and forth is a case before the European Court of Justice regarding a so-called preliminary ruling by the Duisburg Regional Court.

According to EU law, pollution values ​​must be complied with under certain conditions and must be done in test centers.

As a result of the diesel scandal, in which testing equipment was tricked into recording inaccurate road values, resulting in higher actual emissions than what the manipulated tests showed, emissions tests were developed under real driving conditions. These tests also apply to new vehicles. The ECJ had already ruled in an earlier judgment that emissions tests should no longer be limited to laboratory tests, the commission said.

Wissing said the European Commission took the view in the court proceedings that the pollutant limits would apply to every driving situation. This would mean that the limit values ​​would also have to be complied for fully loaded cars driving on an incline. A car packed with people and luggage driving up a hill emits comparatively more pollutants, he noted. But the current state of technology does not allow for this.

“Millions of vehicles are threatened with being taken out of service,” said Wissing in his letter.

Breton called Wissing’s assumption “misleading” in the response letter he had been asked to send by von der Leyen. The commission merely stated that the car emission limits must be compiled “under normal operating conditions,” a spokesman added. This does not mean every driving situation. The authority also had never changed its position on this issue.

Breton said the commission didn’t want to prejudge the court’s decision but that it would continue to promote solutions for clean and healthy air in a “predictable and enforceable regulatory framework.”