On the subject of the initiation of EU infringement proceedings against Germany due to the new VW law, Sahra Wagenknecht, Member of Parliament and member of the executive of the party THE LEFT, states:

By way of this decision, the EU Commission has finally passed the threshold of pain. Apparently also the new VW law violates the European Treaties. At least it was on these grounds that the EU today introduced infringement proceedings against Germany. Indeed, the EU objects to the fact that the federal territory of Lower Saxony continues to enjoy a right of veto in case of important decisions.

The impudence with which the EU interferes into the affairs of the member states and simply tries to brush away democratic rights, has become insupportable. It is the matter here of an act of cold expropriation against which it is possible to protest only in a very resolute way. VW is not a company like any other. It was built up with money that the Nazis had taken from the trade unions. That democratically elected representatives of the trade unions and the country of Lower Saxony may have a word in the business policy of the company, should therefore be more than natural.

The federal government is now under obligation to vigorously defend the VW law that was after all already clearly watered down due to pressure by the EU. The acting of Commission vice president Günter Verheugen in this question is characteristic. That precisely a social democrat in such an important conflict should adopt the position of ultraliberal internal market Commissioner McCreevy and interpret the verdict of the ECJ of October 2007 even more restrictively than the federal government speaks volumes. Obviously, Verheugen's activity in the EU commission is tantamount to the propagation and realisation of neoliberal politics. As long as this course is continued, you need not be surprised that the EU loses more and more of its support in the population.

Sahra Wagenknecht, MEP
Brussels/Berlin, 5 June 2008