BERLIN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The German federal parliament has tasked a committee with investigating the proceedings surrounding the canceled plans to introduce a highway toll in the country.
On Thursday, the Bundestag set up the committee with the votes of the opposition groups, while the governing parties abstained. The committee is scheduled to hold its inaugural meeting on Dec. 12.
Following legal complaints by Austria, the judges at the European Court of Justice ruled in June that the German scheme to charge motorway users was not compatible with European law and discriminated against vehicle owners from other countries.
Germany's Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer, who was responsible for the highway toll project, has been criticized for signing contracts with toll operators in 2018 before final legal certainty existed.
"It will have to be clarified whether the damage to the taxpayer will amount to 500 million euros (550.1 million U.S. dollars) or rather one billion euros," said Oliver Krischer of the Green Party.
The investigative committee chaired by Udo Schiefner from the Social Democratic party (SPD) was tasked with "comprehensively clarifying" the conduct of the government and in particular of Scheuer since 2013.
German media reported that the committee would try to identify the financial and legal obligations and risks the federal government had assumed in connection with the toll project.
"It is a question of precisely surgical, short and painful reappraisal of the processes surrounding the car toll debacle and, as a result, the question of whether negligence was to the detriment of taxpayers," said Christian Jung of the liberal FDP party.
Minister Scheuer did not comment on the issue but his ministry said that the Bundestag had every right to set up such a committee. "The minister will answer questions in the committee," the ministry added.
