Brussels, 30/06/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a very critical speech to the Fédération internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in Brussels on Wednesday 29 June, the Commissioner for the Internal Market and Industry, Elzbieta Bienkowska, compared the Volkswagen scandal to the 2007 banking crisis and the overall denial expressed by European carmakers.
The Commissioner said that the current situation in the European car industry could be summed up with two words "defeat device". In her eyes, as long as the question remains unresolved, the future of the car industry will not be European but American, Chinese or Indian instead. Continuing on this tack, she compared the behaviour of the car manufacturers to the banks during the 2007 financial crisis and which could be divided into two kinds of denial: a denial to recognise failure; a denial to recognise extent of the problem; a denial to recognise that they should have acted before and a denial to recognise the scale of what action should be undertaken.
She said that the car manufacturers had obviously been in denial and that there were too many authorities that lacked determination. She also hammered home the fact that "There has been too little honesty about the situation, too little cooperation. I am beginning to get tired of explaining to MEPs and Environment Ministers why we do not have a comprehensive vision of the facts and why we are not taking appropriate action".
The Commissioner was keen to emphasise that European consumers expected to be treated fairly and referred to the asymmetrical treatment they received compared to that for US consumers, who were going to be compensated by the Volkswagen group, contrary to European consumers, as announced as early as last year (see EUROPE 1142). On Tuesday 28 June, the German group announced that it would be setting up a "funding pool" of around €10 billion to compensate US consumers.
The question of compensation for European motorists dominated the exchange between the Commissioner and the President of the Volkswagen group's board, Matthias Müller, who met up shortly before the high-level meeting with the ACEA, automobile Manufacturers Association on Thursday 30 June. The question of the new laboratory emission tests (WLTP) procedure recently adopted by the Commission (EUROPE 11573) was also raised.
At the European Parliament, the EMIS committee, set up following the Volkswagen scandal continues to provide further evidence about fraudulent practices by manufacturers (see EUROPE 11575 and 11543) but also, at a slower level, the shortcomings highlighted at the national and European institutions. The former Commissioner for Industry, Günther Verheugen, is in this regard continuing to reject the invitation from MEPs to address the committee, despite the personal invitation from the European Parliament (see EUROPE 11578). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)