BERLIN, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The filing of a lawsuit by the European Union (EU) against Germany for failing to comply with clean air regulations has reignited a conflict in the federal government on Friday over the handling of the ongoing diesel emissions scandal.
Responding to the EU charges, senior politicians from the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) urged transport minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) to surrender his previous resistance against technical upgrades of older diesel vehicles as a means to lower their nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions levels.
Svenja Schulze (SPD), the minister for the environment, appealed to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/ Christian Social Union (CSU) to back her earlier demands for technical upgrades, paid for by the carmakers themselves, "as fast as possible." Schulze warned that simply hoping for the problem to solve itself was "no longer an option."
Similarly, SPD deputy parliamentary faction leader Matthias Miersch told press that the transport ministry was "following the wrong path by trying to convince people that the problem can be solved with software upgrades alone." German carmakers have already committed to widespread software upgrades for vehicles in the wake of the diesel emissions scandal but have so far argued that more effective technical upgrades would be too costly- and time-consuming to merit serious consideration.
The EU commission filed charges against Germany and five other countries at the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) on Thursday for repeatedly breaching binding limits on urban air pollution caused by diesel emissions. Miersch criticized that Scheuer and his predecessor Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) should have never let it become a formal lawsuit after being made aware of the threat of legal action on behalf of the EU as early as 2015.
The SPD politician said that German citizens "rightfully expected" the government to ensure clean air, as well as to prevent the need for more radical measures like outright driving bans on diesel vehicles. However, the potential compromise offered by technical upgrades in this context was being prevented by the "sitting-it-out tactic" of transport minister Scheuer.
Germany's ruling "grand coalition" has debated for months whether technical upgrades constitute a suitable alternative diesel driving bans, the specter of which was first raised by a widely-publicized landmark ruling of the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has publicly sided with Scheuer and argued that the time and financial resources of the automotive industry would be better spent developing the mobility technologies of the future.
The opposition Green party (Gruene) joined SPD politicians on Friday in their criticism of CDU and CSU politicians' behavior in the diesel emissions scandal. Greens deputy parliamentary faction leader Oliver Krischer complained that "taxpayers were at risk" of having to shoulder hefty EU fines because Merkel and Scheuer did not want to hold highly-profitable carmakers responsible for their diesel cheating.
According to the Federal Environmental Office (UBA), driving bans in German cities can only be averted if older diesel vehicles undergo comprehensive retro-fitting efforts. "(The air) will only get cleaner in densely-populated areas if producers start taking upgrades of vehicles with Euro 4 and especially Euro 5 diesel motor type more seriously," UBA director Maria Krautzberger told the newspaper "Sueddeutsche Zeitung" (SZ).
