The European Commission and Germany announced on Saturday that they had reached an agreement to unblock a key text of the European Union’s climate plan on CO2 emissions from cars, by relaxing the ban on combustion engines following 2035.
Berlin had stunned its European partners in early March by blocking at the last moment a regulation providing for the reduction of CO2 emissions from new vehicles to zero, effectively imposing 100% electric engines from the middle of the next decade.
This text had already been the subject of an agreement in October between Member States and European Parliament negotiators, with the green light from Germany, and had been approved in mid-February by MEPs meeting in plenary.
To justify his volte-face, extremely rare at this stage of the procedure, Germany had asked the Commission to present a proposal paving the way for vehicles running on synthetic fuels.
This technology, still in development, would consist in producing fuel from CO2 resulting from industrial activities.s. Defended by high-end German and Italian manufacturers, it would extend the use of heat engines following 2035.
The Commission has been negotiating in recent weeks the terms of a way out of the crisis with Berlin, which demanded a firmer commitment on synthetic fuels, admittedly already mentioned in the initial text but deemed legally too weak.
“We have reached an agreement with Germany on the future use of synthetic fuels“, announced on Saturday the European Commissioner for the Environment Frans Timmermans on Twitter.
The Swedish Presidency of the Council of the EU immediately indicated that the regulation on CO2 emissions from cars would be submitted to the ambassadors of the 27 member countries on Monday in Brussels so that the legislation might be definitively adopted at a meeting of EU ministers. Energy Tuesday.
Contested Technology
“Vehicles equipped with a combustion engine can be registered following 2035 if they only use neutral fuels in terms of CO2 emissions“, rejoiced the German Minister of Transport Volker Wissing.
Synthetic fuel technology is, however, contested by environmental NGOs who consider it costly, energy-intensive and polluting.
“Big anger! The Commission therefore lies down in front of Germany!” Protested MEP Karima Delli, calling on the European Parliament to prevent the green light for synthetic fuels.
The blockade in Berlin was an initiative of the liberals of the FDP, the third party in the ruling coalition behind the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.
This small party, credited with regarding 5% of voting intentions in national polls, lost five consecutive regional elections. He hopes to assert himself by posing as a defender of the automobile, betting on the hostility of a large part of the population to the ban on combustion engines.
To ensure the unity of his coalition, the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz had preferred to align himself with this request and the Greens let it happen.
“A real disaster”
Finally, “the text is unchanged. The rule of 100% zero-emission cars in 2035 is therefore maintained,” reacted the President of the Environment Committee of the European Parliament Pascal Canfin (Renew, Liberals), assuring that he would be vigilant on compliance with the “climate neutrality” of heat engines that will be authorized.
The industry has already invested heavily in electric vehicles. Even if they prove their worth, synthetic fuels, which do not exist today, “will not play a significant medium-term role in the passenger car segment“, said Markus Duesmann, boss of Audi (Volkswagen group).
Due to their cost, they will only make sense for a few luxury cars “like Porsche 911s or Ferraris”, underlines Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, an expert at the Center Automotive Research in Germany, who sees “no significant change” for the green transition.
But, according to him, the mismanagement of the file by “the European Commission has fed new doubts” in public opinion and created “uncertainties for investment”.
“It’s bad for the European car industry, because the Chinese and the Americans will widen the gap in the electric vehicle“, he assures.
The affair also affected Germany’s image in Brussels and undermined the credibility of the institutions, believe many observers.
“A member state threatens to provoke a constitutional crisis of the EU (non-respect of the result of a legislative procedure) and gets nothing substantial in return, a real disaster“, denounced the German social-democrat MEP René Repasi.
