Volkswagen Suspends Top Lobbyist Amid Inquiry Into Diesel Tests on Monkeys
Mr. Vella said 400,000 people in the European Union died prematurely each year as a result of air pollution from all sources “because of a massive, widespread failure to address the problem.” He expressed frustration
that “a sense of urgency is not always evident across member states.”
The experiments that preceded Mr. Steg’s suspension were conducted at a laboratory in Albuquerque for the European Research Group on Environment
and Health in the Transport Sector, known by its German initials, E. U.G.
The commission said it planned to pursue legal action against the nine countries at the European
Union’s highest court for their chronic failure to enforce air quality standards
Over the last 20 years, diesel cars have taken a strong hold on the European market, thanks in large part to regulations
that made them cheaper to fill up than gasoline-powered cars.
Germany has often balked at efforts to tighten regulations on auto emissions
and to improve enforcement, and the latest uproar has put Ms. Merkel on the defensive as she struggles to form a coalition government after winning a narrow plurality in elections late last year.
Karmenu Vella, the European commissioner responsible for environmental matters, met with ministers from the nine offending countries in Brussels on Tuesday and said afterward
that they had failed to present credible plans for reducing pollution.
FRANKFURT — Volkswagen suspended its chief lobbyist on Tuesday amid a growing furor over experiments on monkeys
that were meant to promote the virtues of diesel-powered vehicles, but now threaten to further undermine the German car industry and to increase political instability in Berlin.
