When negotiators from EU member states, the European Commission and the European Parliament reached an ambitious deal to stop selling internal combustion engine cars by 2035 on an October afternoon, Frans Timmermanns, the top climate official of the blog, was one of many tweeted to celebrate. “Let’s go full speed ahead!” wrote the vice-president of the European Commission.
Fast forward five months and the bill, which was due to receive the final formal green light in recent weeks, has hit a roadblock.
German Transport Minister Volker Wissing, who is part of Germany’s centre-left coalition and himself from the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), made a last-minute bid last month to include a amendment to allow cars with internal combustion engines to be sold after that date. if they run on climate neutral and synthetically created e-fuels.
It’s a potential opening for automakers to continue selling traditional cars instead of electric ones, and Wissing argues it’s needed to support the development of e-fuels and the auto industry.
Bumpy road to climate neutrality
Germany won the support of a handful of other EU member states, and a vote to confirm a bill that had been in the works for several months was suddenly delayed.
Now the European Commission and the German Transport Ministry are apparently engaged in a ping-pong match of proposals and counter-proposals ahead of an EU summit later this week. Meanwhile, Germany’s EU partners are left wondering when it was okay to reopen the box of laws that are supposed to be done and deleted.
“It is indeed very unusual for a member state to express concerns so late in the legislative process,” an EU diplomat told DW on condition of anonymity. In his view, German concerns about exemptions for e-fuels and Italian concerns about the production of sports cars had been addressed during the negotiations, the source stressed.
France has been particularly critical of the attempt to adjust the law, which sets a 100% CO2 emissions reduction target for new cars and vans, essentially banning diesel and petrol engines after 2035. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said earlier this month that he sent a mixed message. messages to the car industry: that they have to put everything into electrification, but also that there would be some exemptions.
This was economically counterproductive and industrially dangerous, Le Maire said in comments published by the Reuters news agency. “This is not in the interest of our domestic manufacturers and, above all, it is not in the interest of the planet.”
Contested role of electronic fuels in future transport
Wissing’s demands are controversial because few see e-fuels as a viable solution to reducing passenger car emissions, Elisabetta Cornago, an EU climate policy expert at the Center for European Reform, told DW on Tuesday. “Studies indicate that e-fuels could power less than 5% of the EU fleet by 2035, proving to be a distraction for the electrification of transport,” he said. Currently, the EU does not generate enough renewable energy to produce e-fuels on top of its other energy needs.
The attempt to seek an exemption also appears to be straining relations with the FDP’s main coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats and Greens, who are keen to promote their climate credentials internationally. Germany’s coalition government, in power since Chancellor Olaf Scholz took over from Angela Merkel at the end of 2021, has been repeatedly criticized for slow and fluffy decision-making, for example on the question of whether ‘they have to send tanks to Ukraine to defend themselves from Russia.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Green Party said on Tuesday that it was “high time” that a conclusion was reached, according to the dpa news agency. “Now it’s also hurting Germany,” Habeck said, adding that the fight could undermine the EU’s broader climate goals.
Bad example of a great player
Cornago said it wasn’t a good look for Berlin. “There is damage to the reputation of Germany itself in the sense that the biggest country in the EU is now basically walking towards a deal,” he said. “What people are worried about here in Brussels is that if Germany can do this, many other countries can start doing it too,” he said, pointing to the example of Italy’s new right-wing government and poland
The proposal appeared to be an attempt to score political points, he continued. “What the FDP is doing is trying to make its voters believe that it can freeze [energy] transition and that you can find some ways to avoid the total electric transformation of the vehicle sector.” This, he said, is not believable.
A poll published last week by German broadcaster ARD showed that most Germans oppose banning combustion engines in new cars in the EU.
The EU diplomat DW spoke to said European lawmakers had wanted the “ambitious text” already agreed to pass, but did not see the entire bill in jeopardy. “We mustn’t make this bigger than it is,” the source said, although the incident highlighted the dangers of domestic politics spilling over into EU politics.
The dispute may be raised by individual member states – France, for example – at this week’s summit, although EU officials appear keen to keep it off the official agenda, the diplomat added. It’s unclear when a vote on the motor bill itself might be scheduled.
Edited by: Jon Shelton
