The European People’s Party (EPP)—the European Parliament’s largest group and Commission chief von der Leyen’s own political family—turned against yet another landmark element of the EU’s ambitious green transformation agenda when it called for significantly weakening the established ban on new combustion engine cars from 2035.
In a new proposal, due to be published later on Wednesday, December 11th, the EPP sides with automakers and national governments campaigning against the combustion engine ban, instead urging Brussels to implement measures that would help Europe’s declining car manufacturing sector.
Specifically, the document argues that the rushed decision to ban the sale of CO2-emitting cars 10 years from now “should be reversed” and the EU must continue to allow combustion engine vehicles that run on biofuels and alternative fuels (such as natural gas) on its market beyond the set deadline. Plug-in hybrids, which sport both an electric battery and a combustion engine, should also be included in the tolerated category, the group says.
Furthermore, the EPP will also propose that the EU’s stricter CO2 emission limits that will come into effect next year should not apply to car manufacturers to the same degree as other industries, and therefore calls on Brussels to begin immediate legislative work on the relevant files.
The draft document is more or less in line with what struggling automakers have been saying these past years, and which the Brussels elite—the EPP included—had largely ignored.
Luca de Meo, the president of Europe’s car manufacturing association, for instance, pointed out that while the industry has a decade to find a solution to the combustion engine ban, it had no time to prepare for next year’s new CO2 emission limits and potentially faces €15 billion in fines that would primarily hurt R&D in the long run: “Those that have set the rules have not provided the necessary market conditions, charging infrastructure, stable incentive schemes, pricing of energy, etc,” de Meo said.
The EPP’s draft policy paper, therefore, suggests either delaying the enforcement of the new emission standards by another two years or softening requirements for the auto industry specifically.
Although the EPP holds considerable sway in all EU institutions, it’s debatable whether the EU Commission leadership would let go of its precious climate targets without a fight. The EU’s new Dutch climate chief Wopke Hoekstra, for instance, said in September that the climate rules are well-designed to incentivize investment and that companies around Europe were on the right track to meeting them in time.
The current state of the industry, however, paints a different picture. Volkswagen, for example, announced in October that it would have to shut down at least three German factories, implement massive layoffs, and freeze the salaries of those who remain, potentially until the end of 2026.It’s no wonder that the general sentiment towards climate targets is shifting within the EPP, whose largest and most influential member party is the German CDU/CSU, which is, incidentally, also preparing for the coming snap elections early next year and cannot afford to neglect the country’s auto industry and the 750,000 people it employs.
