Joint press release with the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety

Soot particle filter: Federal Environment Ministry denies accusation it lied

Bundestag was fully and truthfully informed

According to a report by the ddp news agency, the Federal Environment Ministry lied to the German Bundestag’s environment committee and in answer to questions posed by the opposition about diesel soot particle filters, said a spokesperson at the Federal Environment Ministry. The federal ministry strongly denies the statement that it lied to the German Bundestag. The Federal Environment Ministry provided the Bundestag with appropriate and complete information—in both written responses to parliament questions and verbally at a meeting of the Bundestag environment committee held on 12 December 2007.

 

The contradiction between statements about diesel soot particle filters made by the Federal Environment Agency and the Federal Ministry for Environment alleged by the ddp news agency, do not exist.  The news agency’s purported evidence for its statements are based on a blatant misinterpretation of indisputable facts.

During the Bundestag environment committee session of 12.12.2007, delegates from the Federal Environment Ministry (BMU) and UBA provided concordant explanations that they had had differing understandings of the research design in the phase prior to the research project. This concerned the issue of to what extent testing of retrofitted filters would be based on technical standards defined in Appendix 26 of Road Traffic Licencing Regulations (StVZO).  This appendix, a draft of which the two ministries in charge (BMU and BMVBS) had already submitted on 31.10.05, was not yet in effect at the time, yet its resolution and passage by the Federal Council (Bundesrat) on 16.12.05 was foreseeable.

In spring of 2006 BMU advised UBA to grant the research project based on Appendix 26. This has been confirmed by UBA Vice President Dr. Holzmann in an environment committee session held on 12.12.2007, as only the technical requirements of the Appendix are legally binding as concerns any grant or its refusal.  The accusations of having lied are groundless.

 

 

Umweltbundesamt Hauptsitz

Wörlitzer Platz 1
06844 Dessau-Roßlau
Germany

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