German wants its ex-minister to foot $267 million bill for failed highway toll plan

Former Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer, who was in office from 2018 until 2021, had insisted on the toll despite expert warnings that it would unfairly penalize drivers from other EU countries.

Berlin:The German government is considering whether it can make former Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer foot at least part of the quarter-billion euro compensation it has to pay a private company over a failed plan to introduce highway tolls.

Scheuer, who was in office from 2018 until 2021, had insisted on the toll despite expert warnings that it would unfairly penalize drivers from other EU countries. A European Union court ruled it illegal in 2019, prompting a lengthy arbitration procedure with the company hired to set up the toll system that ended in a 243-million euro ($267-million) settlement last week.

Back in 2019, two companies had said they were suing the government for €560 million ($620 million) over Scheuer's failed plans to introduce a road toll in Germany that would have disproportionately impact foreign-registered cars. Scheuer's successor, Volker Wissing, told German weekly Bild am Sonntag that taxpayers shouldn't have to bear all of the cost of “this serious political mistake.”

“We will look the legal situation very closely and carefully examine whether and to what amount compensation claims (against Scheuer) are possible,” he was quoted saying Sunday. Scheuer is a member of the conservative, Bavaria-only Christian Social Union that is part of the biggest opposition bloc in Germany's federal parliament. (With agency inputs)