Andreas Scheuer, a former German transport minister, faces a perjury trial tied to a failed plan to charge foreign motorists highway tolls. Prosecutors in Berlin accuse him of lying before a parliamentary committee investigating the scheme. The indictment has been accepted by a Berlin regional court. Scheuer, who has left politics, denies the allegations, as does co-defendant Gerhard Schulz. The passenger car toll plan was promoted by the CSU, which sought to charge all drivers while compensating German motorists through reduced motor vehicle taxes. The European Court of Justice rejected the scheme in 2019 for breaching EU rules, but binding contracts had already been signed, leading to 243 million euros in damages paid to CTS Eventim and Kapsch TrafficCom. No court date has been set.
"Berlin prosecutors accuse Andreas Scheuer of lying before a parliamentary committee investigating the issue, and the Berlin regional court said Friday that it had accepted the indictment. Scheuer, 51, a former minister with the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU) who has since left politics, has rejected the claims against him, as has state secretary at the time, Gerhard Schulz, a co-defendant in the case."
"The passenger car toll plan had been pushed by the CSU, whose leaders had voiced annoyance that while German drivers pay highway tolls in many other European countries, foreign drivers get a free ride on Germany's autobahn. They came up with a plan to levy tolls for all drivers but then compensate German motorists by reducing their motor vehicle taxes, a scheme that was shot down in 2019 by the European Court of Justice for breaching EU rules."
"By that time, however, Scheuer's ministry had already entered into binding contracts with the designated toll scheme operators. This ended up costing the German government 243 million euros ($283 million at current exchange rates) in damages paid to the companies involved, CTS Eventim and Kapsch TrafficCom. READ ALSO: Five surprising ways Germany is using new technology to improve mobility"
"According to prosecutors, Scheuer and Schulz allegedly made "deliberate false statements" to the parliamentary committee investigating the issue. When asked by MPs whether the companies had offered in late 2018 to postpone signing the contracts until after the ECJ ruling, both men allegedly "stated, contrary to their actual recollection, that they could not remember such an offer of postponement," the prosecutor's office said. No date has yet been announced for the first court hearing."
Read at The Local Germany
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