It is a long soap opera that culminates this Tuesday, March 28. The 27 have definitively ratified the text that will force new cars to stop emitting CO2 from the middle of the next decade, effectively banning gasoline, diesel and hybrid vehicles, in favor of 100% electric vehicles. This text is part of the European objective of carbon neutrality in 2050.
Compromise found this weekend with the Germans
This historic vote closes several weeks of tension between the Member States, after Germany took a radical turn, asking to renegotiate the text to obtain the authorization of synthetic fuels from the Commission. Berlin had surprised its partners in early March by blocking the regulation, when it had already been approved in mid-February by MEPs meeting in plenary, after receiving the green light from member states, including Germany.
This controversial and still developing e-fuel technology would consist of producing fuel from CO2 resulting from industrial activities. Defended by high-end German and Italian manufacturers, it would make it possible to extend the use of thermal engines after 2035. A solution that will mainly affect sports and high-end models. It is questioned by many environmental associations that do not see it as a lasting solution.
A delegated act for synthetic fuel
Although the German Transport Minister, Volker Wissing, was pleased that vehicles equipped with a combustion engine can be registered after 2035 if they only use CO2-neutral fuels, synthetic fuels are not part of the text voted on on Tuesday.
The authorization to register these vehicles with internal combustion engines that use e-fuels will be included in what is called a delegated act, that is, a separate proposal that will be put to the vote in Parliament in a few months. This leaves an uncertain outcome for this vote. Some MEPs, wind against what they consider a capitulation of Brussels, have already made it known that they would block.
In France, we are pleased to have broken the dead end, with an unchanged deadline of 2035, but we strongly criticize the German method. Care must be taken, the cabinet of Agnès Pannier Runacher was told, not to weaken the European institutions by reopening closed texts: this sends a very bad signal while other emblematic laws for the climate, such as the reform of the electricity market, for example, are being negotiating in Brussels.
Source: BFM TV
