EU officials may have known about the Volkswagen emissions scandal years before it came to light. The Financial Times newspaper published an exchange
ADVERTISEMENTEU officials may have known about the Volkswagen emissions scandal years before it came to light.
The Financial Times newspaper published an exchange between two former European commissioners.
The former environment commissioner wrote to the EU executive’s industry czar that there was “a significant discrepancy between the certified emissions and those actually observed on the road.”
That former industry commissioner is now an MEP.
He says he knew about so-called defeat devices that give a lower CO2 reading, but didn’t know the names of the companies.
“Already in 2012, in an official text, the European commission drew attention to the problem. but since it’s up to the member states to enforce European norms, clearly they haven’t been controlled well enough,” said Italy’s Antonio Tajani.
But many MEPs want to know what this was not investigated
“What we are asking is really an investigation of the role of commission and member states authorities on why these informations was not investigated,” said Dutch Green MEP Bas Eickhout.
MEPs voted on Tuesday in a non-binding resolution that called for an EU-wide probe into the scandal.