Former environment commissioner from 2010 until 2014 Janez Potocnik was questioned at length by the committee of inquiry into the Volkswagen scandal on Monday 5 September but resolutely held to his line, stating that he had done his best when he was a commissioner and using the opportunity subtly to attack his former colleague, the then industry commissioner.
Potocnik was upbeat, sometimes scathing, sparing no individual and no institution, criticising one after the other the car industry, which he described as “fundamentally irresponsible and stupid” for letting itself be compromised by fraudulent practices, the member states, MEPs and the media. He told Wim van de Camp (EPP, Netherlands), who was challenging him on his lack of action in raising his concerns on the disparity between the results of tests conducted in the laboratory and those carried out under real conditions that he felt no stress in talking about what had happened previously, before repeating his line of defence.
The former commissioner had prepared a number of arguments. Among the main arguments was that his portfolio had been one of the hardest hit. As the environment commissioner, he was responsible for air quality, not for European emissions standards – that fell within the remit of the industry commissioner, Antonio Tajani. Potocnik argued that the reasons that European air quality standards had been exceeded were manifold and could not simply be laid at the door of the car industry alone.
The former commissioner repeated above all that he had at no time been aware of the cheat devices, joining his former colleagues in advancing this argument (see EUROPE 11613). It is, therefore, problematic to declare someone responsible for something of which he has no knowledge, he opined. The only concession made was his acknowledgement that he had not defended his portfolio strongly enough, a further reference certainly to Tajani.
Potocnik had, indeed, from February 2013 indicated his growing suspicions that car makers were circumventing the legislation in force. Furthermore, at the time, he expressed concern at the lack of action on the part of the Commission in dealing with the issue, obliquely criticising the inactivity of DG Enterprise and Industry. “That’s life”, he said, arguing that some services may be more energetic in their defence of some interests than of others.
An article in the German newspaper Der Spiegel of 5 September 2016 – and the European newspaper EUobserver of 2 September – would suggest that Tajani’s services came under strong pressure from car manufacturers not to set “excessive” environmental requirements. Tajani argued for and was successful in having adopted a moratorium in 2012 in order to avoid too great an impact on the competitiveness of European industry. Here again, Potocnik had a jibe at his former colleague: “Better regulation does not mean less regulation”, he said. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)