Trial against former Transport Minister Scheuer to begin on 21 September in Berlin

Co-defendant is former state secretary Gerhard Schulz, who likewise disputes having made a false statement. According to the public prosecutor's office, both are said to have knowingly told untruths during their questioning in the committee. Scheuer resigned his Bundestag mandate in April 2024.

Background: The failure of the Pkw-Maut

At the heart of the proceedings is the question of whether Scheuer and Schulz accurately presented the sequences of events surrounding the Pkw-Maut contracts in the committee of inquiry. The indictment is based on the allegation that Scheuer had already signed so-called operator contracts for the collection of the Pkw-Maut at the end of 2018, even though the ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the legality of the project was still pending.

Scheuer rejects the allegations. His defence lawyer Daniel Krause stated at the end of May, when the court had accepted the indictment: "Nach nunmehr über vier Jahren Dauer der Ermittlungen, in denen sich Andreas Scheuer stets vollständig kooperativ gegenüber den Ermittlungsbehörden gezeigt hat, wird die Hauptverhandlung endlich die Möglichkeit bieten, den Sachverhalt unter Beteiligung der Verteidigung umfassend zu klären." The defence had so far been denied this.

Schulz likewise disputes the allegation, according to matching accounts from the defence and the public prosecutor's office. The public prosecutor's office initially declined to comment on his overall defence strategy when asked. "Herr Scheuer ist zuversichtlich, dass seine Unschuld bestätigt wird. Dafür wird er kämpfen.", it was said from his circle.

High costs for the taxpayer

The proceedings are set against the backdrop of the failure of the prestige project Pkw-Maut. The CSU had pushed forward the introduction of a toll for passenger cars in the federal government. In 2019, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) halted the project and declared it unlawful.

The ECJ saw in the design at the time a discrimination against foreign road users, as the revenue from the toll was to have been fully compensated through a reduction in the domestic vehicle tax. The federal government subsequently had to abandon the planned introduction.

At the centre of criticism is the fact that Scheuer had signed the operator contracts at the end of 2018, without waiting for the outcome of the ECJ proceedings. The public prosecutor's office accuses him of having deliberately misrepresented in the committee how this premature signing of the contracts came about.

Investigations and committee of inquiry

The Berlin public prosecutor's office announced at the beginning of May 2022 that it had initiated investigative proceedings against Scheuer as well as Schulz. After roughly four years of investigations, the indictment was brought, which the court accepted at the end of May.

The Maut debacle has cost the German state a great deal of money: following a settlement after an initial arbitration proceeding with the originally intended operators, the German state had to pay a total of around 243 million euros in damages. In the settlement, compensation was agreed for lost revenue and expenses of the operator companies.

A second arbitration proceeding on further claims has not yet been concluded, according to information from the proceedings. Overall, the costs for the federal government could rise significantly as further lawsuits and additional arbitration proceedings are still pending.

The Bundestag had specifically set up a Pkw-Maut committee of inquiry to clarify the political responsibility for the failed project. Scheuer and Schulz testified in its hearings, with their statements later called into question by other documents and witness testimony.

The current indictment for false statements relates to the statements made in this committee. If the court confirms the allegations, the defendants face a fine or a prison sentence. The possible sentence in the event of a conviction would range, depending on the court's assessment, between a fine and a prison sentence of up to five years.

Proceedings and possible consequences

The Berlin Regional Court has initially scheduled twelve hearing days for the main trial. The proceedings are to last until 25 November. Several witnesses and experts are summoned for each hearing day, including former employees of the Federal Ministry of Transport and representatives of the operator companies.

Scheuer was Federal Transport Minister from 2018 to 2021 in the cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and subsequently briefly under Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Following the end of the Ampel coalition and his departure from the Bundestag in April 2024, he is now active as an entrepreneur.

The CSU has so far been restrained in commenting on the ongoing criminal proceedings. In Munich, it was said that they would await the proceedings and let the judiciary do its work. The federal government also declined to comment when asked and referred to the ongoing proceedings.

Before the start of the main trial on 21 September, both defendants must once again formally respond to the charges. This will be followed by the taking of evidence, in which, among other things, the authenticity of the contract documents and internal emails from the Ministry of Transport are to be examined.

It is awaited with anticipation which witnesses the court will summon. Several transcripts from the committee of inquiry are already available, in which former employees describe the sequences of events in part differently from Scheuer and Schulz. Should a conviction result, this could also have political consequences for the processing of the Maut debacle.

In parallel, the Federal Court of Audit is still reviewing whether the federal government suffered further financial damage from the failure of the Maut. A final report is expected at the earliest after the conclusion of the criminal proceedings.