In America, Volkswagen AG sold nearly 600,000 diesel cars with cheater software, and the company is facing the full brunt of the law. In Europe, the company sold some 8.5 million of cars that emit cancer-causing gases in much higher concentrations than already lax EU laws allow, and there is little more than finger-wagging. In America, Volkswagen’s cheater-diesels could have caused some 100 earlier deaths, the New York Times figures. In diesel-saturated Europe, the emissions are estimated to cost more than 100,000 lives per year, but the matter is swept under the carpet.
In yet another chapter of a EU-wide cover-up, an investigating commission installed by Germany’s transport ministry with orders to get to the bottom of the Volkswagen scandal, and to find out whether other carmakers also are guilty of diesel-deception, most likely will find nothing. Not because there is nothing to find, rather because the commission “consists exclusively of friends of the industry,” Germany’s Spiegel Magazine reports today.
The commission was convened shortly after Volkswagen admitted cheating in September last year. Since then, the commission was not heard from. Even the people on the commission were a secret.
“Now we know why,” says Der Spiegel.
There is not a single independent member on the commission. Four seats are taken by representatives of the transport ministry, three went to Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt, a government agency that became the target of criticism for looking the other way when the cheating was an open secret. One member is a professor of the Technical University of Munich. He “worked for the auto industry in the past,” says der Spiegel, and it sums up: “Volkswagen doesn’t need to worry about that gang.”
There is no shortage of leads the commission could follow. Shortly after the scandal broke, Germany’s Kraftfahrtbundesamt commissioned tests of other markers’ cars. In November, “significant deviations” were registered. Then, the report was put under lock and key. There were sometimes disastrous readings when environmental groups and media tested cars of other makers. No action in Berlin.
In the first shot of a legal barrage facing the company stateside, the U.S. Justice Department sued Volkswagen for up to $46 billion for allegedly violating environmental laws. In Europe, no punishments have been ordered, and EU industry sources don’t expect any painful penalties. In America, each defeat device installed in a car can cost the company fines far exceeding the sales price of the car. In Europe, defeat devices are illegal since 2007, but the law is toothless: no penalties have been defined.
In 2012, the WHO declared the emissions of diesel vehicles a carcinogen, and about as dangerous as asbestos. Half of Europe’s cars are diesel-driven. Increased awareness of the true dangers of diesel emissions could mean a nuclear winter for Europe’s automakers. Governments seem to be more worried about lost jobs than lost lives. Dieselgate “is worrying to those who are concerned about securing jobs in the German automotive industry,” said Hubertus Heil, deputy head of the Social Democrats (SPD) in the German lower house of parliament.
