BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing has called the 243 million euros in damages due for the burst passenger car toll a "bitter sum." The FDP politician said on Wednesday in Berlin at the same time that the federal government had done damage limitation. Originally, more than 700 million euros in damages had been claimed.

Wissing called the burst passenger car toll a serious mistake. He said he regretted that the compensation sum was not available for infrastructure investments.

The passenger car toll - a CSU prestige project in the then German government - had been stopped by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in June 2019 as illegal. Immediately afterwards, the federal government terminated the contracts with the intended operators, and they demanded compensation. However, the federal government and the then transport minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) strictly rejected the claims. Arbitration proceedings then followed.

Wissing said the arbitration court had proposed a termination via an arbitration award. The budget committee of the Bundestag gave the green light on Wednesday to agree to this arbitration award, he said. After that, the Federal Republic of Germany would have to pay 243 million euros in damages./sam/hoe/DP/ngu