picture alliance / Franziska Kraufmann / dpa
The German automaker BMW Show stock market chart, Daimler Show stock market chart and Volkswagen Show stock market chart can expect a double-digit repayment from the diesel fund, in which they had paid a total of 250 million euros. This is evident from responses of the Federal Ministry of Transport to inquiries of the Greens parliamentary group in the Bundestag, from which the newspapers of the Funke media group quote.
The 250 million euros had promised the auto industry at a diesel summit in August 2017, the federal government gave the same sum. The fund should provide funding to municipalities that are particularly affected by nitrogen oxide emissions. However, according to the report, it has now become clear that the approximately 60 cities in which the nitrogen oxide limit values are exceeded, can not fully retrieve the money.
A maximum of 451.5 million euros will be paid out, according to the report from the Ministry of Transport: in addition to 95.5 million already allocated, applications for additional 356 million euros were received by the deadline of the end of August. The sum that will be paid out to the municipalities at the end of the day is still open.
According to the report at least 48.5 million euros remain unused, the manufacturers receive according to the Federal Ministry of Transport their share back. This was contractually agreed with the companies.
“I estimate that the manufacturers at the end of the day get significantly more than 50 million euros repaid,” said Green Party Vice Oliver Krischer the spark newspapers. “Some applications are not approved, and experience shows that other projects are not realized.”
Nor can the money be moved to other clean air support programs under the terms of the contract, as the Funke newspapers claim, citing the Ministry.
The green budget politician Sven-Christian Kindler called the repayment scheme “a mess”. He said: “If there is money left, it will be better off buying electric busses than VW, Daimler and BMW, and the subsidy program for electric buses is many times oversubscribed, and many cities are threatening to go empty-handed.”
cr / afp