Toll Affair Investigation Committee

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Committee members in the boardroom
The committee members before the beginning of the constituent meeting on December 12, 2019

The toll affair investigation committee ( 2nd investigation committee of the 19th electoral term of the German Bundestag ) is an investigation committee of the German Bundestag .

On October 25, 2019, the opposition groups in the 19th German Bundestag introduced a motion to the plenary in printed matter 19/14290 to set up the second parliamentary committee of inquiry for the 19th electoral term. The main opposition groups are the FDP , Die Linke and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen .

The request was referred to the Committee on Election Review, Immunity and Rules of Procedure , where it was passed on November 7, 2019 under minority law. On November 28, 2019, the 2nd committee of inquiry into the " car toll affair" was decided and set up by the plenary. The committee of inquiry into the car toll is the second committee of inquiry in the 19th electoral term and began its public work with an expert hearing on January 16, 2020.

Members of the committee of inquiry

The committee of inquiry is chaired by Udo Schiefner (SPD). The deputy chairman for the Union faction is Nina Warken , who was already a member of the NSA committee of inquiry . The SPD sends the transport policy spokeswoman Kirsten Lühmann to the committee. Oliver Luksic and Christian Jung will attend the committee for the FDP, as well as Jörg Cezanne for the parliamentary group Die Linke. Other members of the Bundestag will join the committee as deputy members.

background

The aim of the planned car toll was an infrastructure charge for the use of cars on motorways, which German users should be reimbursed for. This model was declared inadmissible by the European Court of Justice in June 2019 due to the unequal treatment of residents and non-EU residents.

According to a report in the magazine Capital published shortly afterwards, the Minister of Transport, Andreas Scheuer , who has been in office since March 2018, wanted to bring about a quick contract conclusion with the future operators of the car toll stations by the end of that year, i.e. before the decision of the European Court of Justice . There have been several meetings on this - not known to the Bundestag. The hasty conclusion of the contract and possible errors in the award process could result in unnecessarily high claims for damages from the operating companies. The car toll operator was supposed to be autoTicket GmbH, a consortium made up of the ticket marketer CTS Eventim and the Austrian traffic system provider Kapsch AG . This consortium acted as a bidding group called Paspagon. On December 19, 2019, the consortium filed a claim for damages in the amount of 560 million euros, which was well above the previous assumptions of around 300 million euros.

Investigation order

According to the will of the opposition, the committee of inquiry should clarify which decisions were personally made by the incumbent transport minister "with regard to the planned infrastructure charge and for what reasons". Ministers in the period in question were Alexander Dobrindt and Andreas Scheuer. The committee should also find out whether the Bundestag was informed comprehensively and promptly about possible risks and political obligations in the planning and project periods. There should be a total of thirteen objects of investigation.

The role of Andreas Scheuer

In the course of the investigation, the committee asked Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer to hand over the cell phone data . The Ministry of Transport admitted in the second meeting of the committee that the data on the phone had already been deleted and is probably irretrievably lost.

Role of Guido Beermann

The committee of inquiry also requests that the cell phone data of the former State Secretary Guido Beermann be released . These data were also deleted after his resignation as State Secretary, although the committee of inquiry was already foreseeable at that time.

Statements by Peter Ramsauer and Horst Seehofer

Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer rejected allegations at his hearing of witnesses, insofar as they were directed against him. He "did everything right". Both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat had approved the project. If he were currently party leader, he would again favor a car toll, but with greater emphasis on climate protection.

This was preceded by a statement by the former Federal Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer three months earlier , who referred to the responsibility of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer. They had "with seeing eye negotiated an impossibility of the car toll under European law in the coalition agreement of 2013 ".

Seehofer admitted that Ramsauer had doubts during the coalition negotiations in 2013, but made it clear that he (Seehofer) made an election promise at the time that German vehicle owners should not be charged additional, and said: "I was convinced that it would be possible". He could not surprise the public shortly after the election with "that there must now be losers". During his long political career, he has often seen that a lot of what was controversial at the EU Commission could still be resolved in negotiations. Seehofer also pointed out that the then Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt received the "green light" from the EU Commission at the end of 2016 for a slightly modified toll model. He (Seehofer) did not doubt for a minute that this would not have been valid before the ECJ .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Motion: Establishment of the 2nd committee of inquiry for the 19th electoral period (car toll). (PDF) In: Bundestag.de. German Bundestag, October 25, 2019, accessed on October 27, 2019 .
  2. ^ German Bundestag - Three parliamentary groups call for a committee of inquiry into the car toll. German Bundestag, accessed on October 27, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Agenda for the 25th meeting of the Committee on Election Review , Immunity and Rules of Procedure - Item 1 Establishment of the 2nd committee of inquiry for the 19th electoral term (car toll)
  4. ^ A b Götz Hausding: German Bundestag - Final deliberations without debate. Retrieved November 28, 2019 .
  5. ↑ a b c Drucksache 19/15543 - Recommendation for a resolution and report by the Committee on Election Review, Immunity and Rules of Procedure (1st Committee). German Bundestag, November 27, 2019, accessed on November 28, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Patrick Pehl: Toll Committee urges inspection of files. In: n-tv . January 17, 2020, accessed February 2, 2020 .
  7. ^ The Toll Fairy Tale by Transport Minister Scheuer. In: Capital.de. October 10, 2019, accessed October 30, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Thomas Steinmann: Procedure . In: Capital . No. 9 . Gruner + Jahr, Berlin September 2019.
  9. ↑ BMVI - Chronology. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Wayback Machine. December 31, 2019, accessed December 31, 2019 .
  11. ↑ heise online: Broken car toll: Operator demands 560 million euros in damages from the federal government. Accessed December 31, 2019 .
  12. ↑ a b Scheuer's cell phone data also deleted. In: tagesschau.de . March 12, 2020, accessed March 24, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Toll Investigation Committee: Seehofer says he did everything right. tagesschau.de, May 28, 2020, accessed on May 31, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Seehofer before the toll investigation committee: "It's fun". Der Spiegel, May 28, 2020, accessed on May 31, 2020 .