Marked area for emergency start is where the ignition would ordinarily be, you should see a little key logo there.
I just this morning made a spare genuine prox key for a lads 2016 Golf R, it was doing similar to whats described herbut his emergency start on both keys wasnt all that great, troublesome to pick up the keys transponder on the spot where the coil is on the steering column. When i programmed the new remote, it coded in first time no messing, but his original 2 wouldnt go back in at all, unfortunetly leaving him with only one good key. Ive seen where the transponder/ermergency start has packed up before on VW keys that use the same I.D so can only put it down to emergency start function/transponder chip breaks up when the remote starts playing up too.
He's left happy enough with his one good remote key to see how he gets on, and hopefully he'll be back for a second.
EDIT, worth noting the correct battery for these keys is CR2025, not 2032 as people seem to put in them more than they should