Brussels, 19/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska will meet the chief executive of the German Volkswagen group, Matthias Müller, on Thursday 21 January to take stock of the internal investigation being carried out by the car maker into the scandal over its diesel engines, corrective measures to be taken and the matter of compensation for customers.
Bienkowska laid particular emphasis on this latter point in her previous meeting with Müller on 25 November 2015. At that time, Volkswagen had considered not compensating European customers as well as US consumers (see EUROPE 11442).
The commissioner is expected also to meet James Farley, president of Ford Europe, Middle East and Africa, to discuss regulatory changes that will have to be introduced in the motor vehicle sector in light of real driving emissions (RDE) tests and future trends and opportunities in the automobile industry, in particular with regard to so-called driverless cars, according to a source.
Elsewhere, the commissioner's spokesperson, Lucia Caudet, said the Commission has still not been informed about nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution thresholds being significantly exceeded by vehicles made by the French manufacturer Renault (the models concerned are the Captur and Espace 5) discovered by the French independent technical commission set up in the wake of the Volkswagen cheating scandal.
On Thursday 21 January, MEPs will establish who will form the committee of inquiry into the scandal affecting the German manufacturer (see EUROPE 11467). The task of the committee will include determining what the Commission knew about car makers' practices and how far it failed to protect consumers. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)