Volkswagen’s EU loans may be recalled
Loans to Volkswagen from the European Investment Bank (EIB) may be recalled if it becomes clear the money was misused, the bank’s president has said. ‘We will have to ask ourselves the question whether we should reclaim loans,’ Werner Hoyer told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
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The Volkswagen Group received more than €4 billion in loans from the EIB over the past 10 years – much of it intended to develop less-polluting engines. Its truck and bus business, Scania, received €1.1 between 2008 and 2013 for the research and development of a ‘new range of low emission engines’ and ‘clean engine and hybrid technologies.’
Five of the Volkswagen projects with EIB backing fell under its ‘climate action’ category, according to CEE Bankwatch, an NGO which monitors the activities of international financial institutions.
The bank, which has said it has outstanding loans to Volkswagen totalling €1.8 billion, is to monitor the investigations launched by various European countries into the carmaker’s cheating of emissions tests with ‘defeat device’ software installed in 11 million of its diesel cars.
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