Toll trial: Key witnesses contradict former German transport minister Scheuer
In a Berlin court, the heads of CTS Eventim and Kapsch described a 2018 offer to delay road-toll contracts until an EU court ruling. Andreas Scheuer says he does not remember it.
Archive image · Photo: Michael Lucan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
The two key witnesses in the trial of former German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) gave testimony on Monday that weighed against him. Before the Berlin Regional Court, CTS Eventim chief Klaus-Peter Schulenberg and Georg Kapsch, head of Austria's Kapsch, described an offer to postpone the car toll contracts until the European Court of Justice had ruled. The two companies were to operate the toll.
Kapsch described a meeting at the transport ministry in November 2018 attended by Scheuer and co-defendant Gerhard Schulz, a former state secretary. He said the ministry pointed to expert opinions that found the toll compatible with EU law. Schulenberg said of his proposal: "Of course it was meant seriously." He said he bore Scheuer no grudge.
Prosecutors accuse Scheuer and Schulz of knowingly telling a Bundestag inquiry that they could not recall the postponement offer. Both deny the charge; Scheuer told the court: "I have no memory of a postponement offer." The EU court struck down the toll in June 2019, costing taxpayers 243 million euros. The defense can question the witnesses on Wednesday.