Weil And Dobrindt Reject Allegations

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

Stephan Weil denied previous knowledge of manipulations before the Bundestag's investigative committee into the emissions affair. Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt also claims to have first heard of the scandal from the media.

Lower Saxony's head of government and VW supervisor Stephan Weil sticks to his portrayal that he only found out about the emissions scandal immediately before it became public. The SPD politician said on Thursday in the Bundestag committee of inquiry into the emissions affair in Berlin that he was aware of the “serious undesirable development” on September 19, 2015.

Before that there was no concrete information about the full extent. «I was deeply affected. I would not have thought such a thing possible at Volkswagen,”said the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony.

Find out about the problem on TV

On September 18, 2015, US environmental authorities reported violations of diesel emissions in VW vehicles. According to the former CEO Martin Winterkorn in the committee a month ago, there was a phone call with executives the day after. He found out about the problem from television, not from VW.

Weil said that with State Economics Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) - he is also a member of the VW supervisory board - he "worked on a lasting clarification of" Dieselgate ". This process is still ongoing. He added: "It is now also a matter of examining liability claims against members of the corporate bodies." There had recently been reports that ex-chief overseer Ferdinand Piëch had previously informed the inspectors about emissions problems.

Dobrindt refers to the number of measurements

Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt also rejected allegations of insufficient clarification of the emissions scandal. "No other European government has initiated such a large number of measurements," said the CSU politician in the committee of inquiry. The federal government and he himself first heard about allegations of manipulation against VW in the USA from the media on the weekend of September 19, 2015. Two days later he set up a commission of inquiry. Dobrindt reiterated his demand to make the European regulations on shutdown devices for exhaust gas cleaning stricter.

Above all, the committee should examine the role of the federal government and the authorities subordinate to it in the examination of abnormal emissions. Dobrindt is accused of a lack of clarification by the opposition. Critics also complain that the scandal was not uncovered by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA), which Dobrindt reports. (dpa)