Enlarge image
Transport Minister Scheuer: Clear priorities
Photo: Michele Tantussi / Getty Images
Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) sets clear priorities. Since taking office in March 2018, he has met representatives from the auto industry 80 times for direct talks. The largest organizations BUND, Nabu, Greenpeace, WWF and Deutsche Umwelthilfe only came together for a single conversation. And that was only at a parliamentary evening with many others on January 28, 2020. That emerges from a response from State Secretary for Transport Enak Ferlemann (CDU) to a question from the budgetary spokesman for the Greens, Sven-Christian Kindler, about which the » Süddeutsche Zeitung «reports.
In its response, the ministry listed an abundance of personal phone calls, video and conference calls with executives from the auto industry up until last Tuesday.
VW boss Herbert Diess, Daimler boss Ola Källenius, BMW boss Martin Zipse and VDA boss Hildegard Müller are mentioned as regular conversation partners.
In addition to plant openings and receptions, there were many lobby contacts in the smallest circle.
The opposition criticizes the one-sided orientation.
»Andreas Scheuer is the minister of the car lobby.
The CSU minister can be reached day and night for the bosses of the car companies, while he lets the environmental groups down, «says Kindler.
That fits with the minister's fight against tougher climate protection requirements for the auto industry.
The Ministry of Transport rejects the criticism. The minister is in contact and has spoken to environmental associations at the National Platform for the Future of Mobility, said the ministry. There is no obligation to record all conversations, and it was not carried out either. The information may therefore be incomplete.
Environmental associations, however, confirmed the reluctance to scrub.
"We asked the minister several times for talks, but got no response," the SZ quotes Jens Hilgenberg, head of transport policy at BUND.
It is regrettable that the Minister of Transport is conducting such one-sided talks in a crucial phase for climate protection and the restructuring of the mobility sector.
Nobody at BUND remembers talks with Scheuer at the National Platform for the Future of Mobility.
Scheuer has made itself extremely rare, says Hilgenberg of the newspaper.
"The minister was not present once in the working group on climate protection in transport."
mik
