European industry commissioner demands action from VW: letter

[BRUSSELS] Europe's Industry Commissioner has written to the chief executive of Volkswagen asking for detailed information on cars affected by the emissions scandal and calling for European customers to be compensated in the same way as US clients.

The letter, dated Jan 15 and seen by Reuters, also asks for detailed information on the number of vehicles, per member state and per year affected and technical details on "corrective measures".

Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska also wants information on recall action.

Correspondence has been back and forth between the Commission and Volkswagen in the months after news broke in September last year that Volkswagen used illegal defeat devices to cheat US regulators.

Volkswagen has repeatedly asked the Commision for more time and Chief Executive Matthias Mueller will meet Bienkowska in Brussels on Thursday.

The company has said 11 million vehicles world-wide contain the banned software, 8.5 million of which are in Europe.

REUTERS