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Europe in Review 2016

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The biggest events that shaped the European Union in 2016.

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Photo: European Parliament Dieselgate: the year that went up in smoke The outrage at Volkswagen's industrial-scale emissions cheating has not subsided, but the EU and Germany have done little to punish the automaker or provide compensation to its customers. 24 — EUROPE IN REVIEW DECEMBER 2016

In 2015, the world learned of what became known as the Dieselgate scandal - an industrial-scale cheating of emissions tests by the Volkswagen Group (VW). This year, we understood more of how it happened. But in terms happens again in Europe, 2016 has largely been wasted. of the affected cars were approved in Germany, so it is Germany that is in charge of handing out penalties for the use of the illegal software, known as defeat devices. But according to hearings that took place at the European Parliament in October, Germany is not The response to the situation in the EU and the United States was vastly different. Throughout the year, Brussels-based consumer lobby group BEUC has complained that VW is treating European car owners as “second-class customers”. In the US, the German car giant reached a €13.2 billion settlement to compensate consumers and clean up environmental damage, with potentially a pay. Attempts by the European Commission to persuade VW to compensate Europeans has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. In September, around the scandal's one-year anniversary, VW committed to an “EU-wide action plan”, which contained few notable promises. The German company said it would inform all European customers of the issue by the end of all the while maintaining that equipping 8.5 million cars in Europe with cheating software was actually not illegal. Agency (KBA), Ekhard Zinke, said VW's recall programme was punishment enough. “I regard it as a penalty if a manufacturer is told that they can no longer trade particular products on the market in their present form,” said Zinke - as if the return robbers. any punishment. Following the VW scandal, authorities in the largest member states carried out investigations to check emissions on the road, as compared with those in had been using defeat devices, but they pointed to a loophole in the legislation. If a defeat device is required to protect the engine, it is permissible under the law. This led Dobrindt to argue that the law is too vague and does not contain enough criteria to distinguish between lawful versus illegal use of defeat devices. Parliament's Dieselgate inquiry committee. Photo:European Parliament

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