Dieselgate leak: EU described own policy as 'complete failure'

Three months before the VW scandal broke out in 2015, a senior EU civil servant called the bloc’s diesel-vehicle emissions policy “an almost complete failure” and urged the commission to “mitigate” car industry concerns over a new on-road test.

The five-page internal note, dated 16 June 2015, was written by Daniel Calleja, who was at the time the director-general at the commission's internal market and industry department.

It was addressed to Tomasz Husak, the head of cabinet of i...