Brussels, 30/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - Internal Market Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska met the chairman of Volkswagen, Herbert Diess, on Tuesday 29 September, to make a provisional assessment of the situation in the wake of the car maker's admission of cheating on polluting gas emissions.
“This meeting was not about drawing conclusions but establishing the facts”, according to the Commission. At issue, then, were the number of cars fitted by the maker with the cheat device, the length of time devices of this sort had been used and the countries in which the vehicles had been sold. They also discussed the new procedures for testing emissions under real driving conditions (RDE - real driving emissions) that are due to come into force.
The two made clear the need to win back consumer confidence in European car makers. The Commission has called on Volkswagen to cooperate fully with the national authorities which are currently carrying out in-depth investigations on possible fraud by the iconic German car maker and also by other manufacturers.
Ministers responsible for competitiveness will discuss the Volkswagen scandal and the issue of polluting gases at their meeting in Luxembourg on 1 October and the matter will also be discussed by transport ministers on 8 October. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)