Key Witnesses Claim Ex-Minister Scheuer Was Offered Toll Delay, He Denies Recall
Two main witnesses in Andreas Scheuer's car-toll trial say he was offered to postpone contracts pending an EU court ruling, contradicting his claim of no memory.
The Berlin district court is hearing the case against former transport minister Andreas Scheuer concerning the aborted passenger-car toll. Two principal witnesses, CTS Eventim head Klaus-Peter Schulenberg and Georg Kapsch of the Austrian Kapsch group, told the court that in November 2018 Scheuer received a "postponement offer" to hold off on signing toll contracts until the European Court of Justice ruled on a related lawsuit.
Their accounts echo statements made earlier before the Bundestag’s investigation committee, contradicting Scheuer's courtroom assertion that he has no recollection of such an offer. Prosecutors also allege that former state secretary Gerhard Schulz similarly misrepresented his memory. The dispute centers on contracts signed at the end of 2018 before legal certainty existed, which, after the ECJ's June 2019 decision overturning the toll, caused a multi-million-euro loss for the public purse.
Scheuer and Schulz continue to deny the accusations, maintaining they never received the suggested delay. The trial highlights questions of ministerial accountability and the financial fallout from the aborted scheme.
Why it matters
The case tests whether senior officials can be held accountable for misleading testimony that led to costly public-finance losses.
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