The German government is considering how to force an ex-minister to partially compensate a business entity for a failed political decision. The compensation amount is approximately a quarter billion euro.
Former Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer was in office between 2018 and 2021. As a minister, he oversaw a plan to introduce highway tolls in the country. The plan involved hiring a private company.
An unfair plan
Scheuer’s plan was contested by experts who thought it would unfairly target drivers from other countries. A European court ruled that the minister’s plan was illegal. The case finally went into arbitration proceedings where it was decided that the toll operator must be compensated with 243 million euro.
Volker Wissing, Scheuer’s successor, told a newspaper “We will look at the legal situation very closely and carefully examine whether and to what amount compensation claims (against Scheuer) are possible.” Wissing was speaking to Bild Am Sonntag. He termed Scheuer’s decision a political mistake.
The minister also said that German taxpayers shouldn’t pay the whole amount for a mistake that was not theirs. It is noteworthy that Andreas Scheuer is a member of the Christian Social Union, the largest opposition party in the federal parliament.
Gambling away
In 2019, the then German opposition accused the former minister of “gambling away” public funds to introduce a road tax for foreigners only.
DW reported that two German firms sued Scheuer’s government for its plan to target foreign-registered cars. The report said that the two companies demanded 560 million euro as compensation.
“It is no longer justifiable why Andreas Scheuer continues to be transport minister,” said Green Party’s Anton Hofreiter to Rheinische Post newspaper. Another MP,Oliver Luksic said the two lawsuits were ‘knock out blows’ for the ex-minister.
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