City representatives negotiate in Münster Silence agreed on diesel driving bans decision
Bonn/Münster · Talks about possible driving bans in Bonn ended on Tuesday evening in Münster. The result, however, remains unavailable for the time being and is to be announced on January 23.
The settlement talks on driving bans in Bonn ended on Tuesday evening before the Higher Administrative Court in Muenster. The result, however, remains open until 23 January. Until then, Deutsche Umnwelthilfe as plaintiff and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as defendant have agreed to maintain silence. This leaves it unclear whether and in what form older diesel vehicles will be excluded from city traffic on Reuterstrasse and Belderberg.
Lord Mayor Ashok Sdridharan, who personally sat at the negotiating table, describes the talks as "constructive and rich in detail". "I am very confident that we will have a result by January 23rd." Before the federal city was negotiated, Dortmund was on the agenda in the OVG - the complex discussion took up more time than previously planned. The mediation to the city in the Ruhr area took more than four hours, Bonn was already dealt with after about one hour. Around 5 pm, Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) and representatives of the district government also left the court.
Jürgen Resch, the head of the German Environmental Aid, then made his way back to Berlin and expressed his satisfaction. "I welcome the great seriousness of the issue. What we have worked out is now being examined by the city, the state and environmental aid." After that, one wanted to decide whether a settlement would be reached.
He does not see a settlement as a defeat, but as a means of quickly achieving legal certainty. The problem is not that you cannot win court cases. "The charm lies in the fact that the responsible state governments and authorities cannot, as with court decisions, stall for time and appeal or review the decision by using deadlines. According to one judgement, it could well take one or two years before measures are initiated.
In addition, a settlement could be discussed quite differently. "In Essen, for example, we have established an arbitration construct as a follow-up mechanism that will be implemented if the targets are not met", explains Resch. He would neither confirm nor deny whether such a thing would also be conceivable for Bonn. "Each city is considered individually and individually."
The fact that silence was kept about the talks was also common in other conciliations. "It's about finding out how far you can go. If you want to get everyone involved, you shouldn't pursue partial publication because others would then have to comment on evaluations." However, the condition is always fixed that the EU limit value for nitrogen dioxide is complied with on an annual average.
The threshold of 40 micrograms per cubic meter of air has been repeatedly exceeded in Bonn in recent months. Final figures for 2020 from the State Environmental Agency are not yet available. In Bonn, according to preliminary measurements, the values fluctuated between about 36 and 50 micrograms on a monthly average until October.
Translation: Mareike Graepel
