BERLIN, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer questioned a court decision on diesel bans for two German cities on Friday.
Scheuer told newspaper Bild that he is "not entitled to criticize the judiciary" but considers it "disproportionate if a judge orders a ban on the use of diesel vehicles on a highway".
The minister said such court decisions would endanger the mobility of hundreds of thousands of citizens.
On Thursday, the administrative court of Gelsenkirchen ordered a driving ban zone for old diesel vehicles in the cities of Essen and Gelsenkirchen, which also hits the busy highway A40. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in which both cities are located, intends to appeal the court's decision.
The chamber of crafts in the German city of Duesseldorf also reacted "with complete incomprehension" to the verdict of the Gelsenkirchen judges. According to the chamber, the driving ban would have an impact on more than 25,000 companies in the area. "The economy and the people need more time and cannot be held liable for the failures of politicians and manufacturers," Andreas Ehlert, president of the Duesseldorf chamber of crafts, told press.
The German government declared at the beginning of October not to impose driving bans for diesel cars in cities where the threshold value for nitrogen oxides set by the EU was exceeded by a relatively small amount. The EU threshold value is 40 micrograms of nitrogen dioxide per cubic meter of air. According to the German government, driving bans should not be ordered in cities with maximum values of up to 50 micrograms.
The German Respiratory Society (DGP) criticized that there were good reasons for the low EU limit of 40 micrograms of nitrogen oxides per cubic meter of air. DGP President Klaus Rabe told the newspaper NOZ that "if people with respiratory problems and previous lung diseases regularly inhale increased concentrations of harmful substances, a health risk arises. This is proven by available data".
