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Federal Administrative Court allows diesel driving bans
It has been proven that diesel emissions do not only endanger the environment, but also the health. This circumstance has now been upheld by the Federal Constitutional Court. The judges ruled: "The clean air plans for cities exposed to pollution must also provide for driving bans on diesel passenger cars if it is otherwise possible to disregard the limit values for nitrogen oxides under European law". On Tuesday, February 27, 2018, the Federal Administrative Court ruled on the clean air plans Düsseldorf (ref .: 7 C 26.16) and Stuttgart (ref .: 7 C 30.17). In order to maintain proportionality, however, the Leipzig judges call for exceptions and propose prohibitions in stages - for Euro 5 vehicles only from September 2019.
(Image: WS-Design / fotolia.com) Every year, more than 100,000 people worldwide die of nitrogen oxides from diesel exhaust. Tens of thousands of deaths could be avoided if the prescribed thresholds were met.
Thus, the Federal Administrative Court rejected the revisions of the federal states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg against judgments of the Administrative Courts of Dusseldorf (judgment and JurAgentur Report of 13 September 2016, Ref .: 3 K 7695/15) and Stuttgart (judgment of 19 December 2017 , Az .: 13 K 14557/17; JurAgentur message of the following day) largely from. After that driving bans are not excluded and at least to be checked by the authorities.
According to the Leipzig judgment, this applies in any case if driving bans are the only suitable measure to be able to comply with the limit values in a timely manner.
The Federal Administrative Court referred to European law as justification. According to this, since 2010, the annual mean for nitrogen oxides must not exceed 40 micrograms, and the hourly limit above 200 micrograms is reached at most 18 times a year. If these values can not yet be met, the period of a breach under EU law must be kept "as short as possible" (as the European Court of Justice on Poland, Judgment and JurAgentur Report of 22 February 2018, Az .: C -336 / 16).
To be sure, federal law does not allow driving bans specifically for diesel vehicles. However, this must be disregarded if EU law otherwise can not be implemented. In addition, the Administrative Court of Stuttgart had also called for the inclusion of gasoline below the emissions class Euro 3.
The Federal Administrative Court emphasized that driving prohibitions must also comply with the principle of proportionality, which is also enshrined in EU law. Therefore, driving restrictions in Stuttgart could initially apply only to older vehicles, such as the Euro 4 emission standard. Euro 5 vehicles should only be included if at least four years diesel passenger cars according to the stricter Euro 6 standard on the Market are - so "not before 1 September 2019". In addition, there must be exceptions, such as for craftsmen and residents.
The fact that the control of driving prohibitions without appropriate plaques is difficult does not lead to the illegality of such prohibitions, emphasized the Leipziger judges concluding. sb, mwo / fle