United States 5 – Europe 0

We are tired of hearing that the United States is a country where interest groups rule. With their donations to candidates and the pressure applied via specialized firms, these groups (known as lobbies) have managed to put their business interests above democracy and citizenship. In addition, it is an accepted fact that environmental standards in the U.S. are lower than in Europe, especially with regard to harmful emissions, the key to fighting climate change. Armed with these arguments, many people are opposed to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership which Europe has concluded with the United States. But Europe is not as safe from lobbies as it might think; nor is the United States the environmental ogre that Europe would have us believe. Take for example the scandal involving the manipulation of vehicle diesel emissions — mainly affecting Volkswagen — and we can compare the performance of the United States with Europe.

For starters, diesel emission standards are more stringent in the U.S. than in Europe. That is to say, the same manufacturers have exerted more effective pressure in the European Parliament than in Congress to block regulations which harm them: 1-0.

Secondly, U.S. authorities have been more effective in monitoring compliance with the rules. While the European Environment Agency has turned a blind eye, the U.S. has performed tests with used cars and concluded that the emissions were 40 times those stated in the homologation*: 2-0.

Thirdly, while the U.S. attorney general has initiated criminal proceedings, and described the matter as corporate fraud on a large scale, Europe considers the matter as an administrative offense or a minor technical problem: 3-0.

Fourthly, in the United States, Volkswagen will have to buy back its cars from the users, or repair them; in Europe, however, it will not even be compulsory to repair them: 4-0.

And finally, while consumers in the U.S. are allowed to bring together all of their claims and litigate together against Volkswagen in order to bring down the costs of claims and increase the level of compensation, in Europe we won’t see any of this: 5-0. It’s a case of Dirty Harry, who is in fact European, not American.

*Editor’s note: Homologation is defined as the granting of approval by an official authority.