Brussels acts against seven member States because of the scandal of Volkswagen – Diário de Notícias – Lisbon

Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Greece, Lithuania and the Czech Republic are concerned, because they have failed in the application of penalties

The European Commission has today decided to take action against seven member States in the wake of the scandal of the manipulation of pollutant emissions by the Volkswagen, among which Germany, having failed in the application of penalties laid down in community law.

on the occasion of the adoption of its monthly package of infringement proceedings, the executive community has announced, more than a year after the revelations about the manipulation of emissions, which has decided to “take action” against seven Member States — Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Greece, Lithuania and the Czech Republic — “that do not establish systems of sanctions to deter car manufacturers of violating the legislation on the emissions of motor vehicles or that do not apply such sanctions in case of violation of the law.”

The seven countries concerned now have seven months to reply to the arguments presented by the Commission, after which the executive community can decide to aggravate the procedures and eventually lodge a complaint before the Court of Justice of the EU.

The executive community recalls that, in accordance with the community law applicable, the “Member States should provide for effective sanctions, proportionate and dissuasive to deter car manufacturers of violating the law” and “when there is infringement of the law, for example, the use of defeat devices to reduce the effectiveness of emission control systems, these penalties must be applied”.

The Commission has a need that he then sent today’s letters of formal notice to the Czech Republic, Lithuania and Greece for not having introduced such systems of sanctions in their national legislation, and has launched infringement proceedings against Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom — the same Member States that have issued approvals for the Volkswagen Group AG in the EU — not to apply national provisions on sanctions, despite the use by the company of devices to handlers.

in addition, the Commission believes that Germany and the United Kingdom “not yet complied with the law when it refused to disclose, at the request of the Commission, all technical information collected in national surveys relating to the irregularities of potential of the nitrogen oxide emissions by motor vehicles of the group Volkswagen AG and other car manufacturers on their territories”.

In September of 2015 broke the scandal of the manipulation of pollutant emissions by the Volkswagen and it is estimated that in all over the world have been affected 11 million vehicles for the fraud committed by the group, including eight million in Europe (in Portugal are 125.491 vehicles).

Since then have moved hundreds of lawsuits against the group.

The Volkswagen ensures that only a few technicians were involved in handling diesel engines, without the knowledge of top management.

In Portugal, the association for consumer protection (DECO) he moved forward with a lawsuit against Volkswagen, with that being said, a responsible of the association in question is the “difference unbearable treatment between european consumers and north american”.

For the north american consumers, Volkswagen “released already ten thousand million dollars [about nine thousand million euros] for compensation of direct damages caused by the fraud that caused it,” said Bruno Santos.

The action displayed by the DECO is against the German manufacturer, SIVA (importer of Portuguese of the brands Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda), SEAT and Volkswagen Spanish.