In what looks set to be a significant blow to the green agenda, the European Union will scrap its planned ban on the combustion engine, Manfred Weber, a leading lawmaker in Brussels, has claimed.
Following significant pushback from countries with major automotive industrial bases, including Germany, Italy, Poland, and the Czech Republic, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has reportedly agreed to walk back from outlawing the combustion engine in Europe by 2035.
Speaking of negotiations, the leader of the centre-right European People’s Party, Manfred Weber, told German daily Bild that “the technology ban for internal combustion engines is off the table.”
The German politician said that, instead of an outright ban from 2035, car manufacturers will have targets for a 90 per cent reduction in carbon emissions, rather than 100 per cent. “There will also be no 100 per cent target from 2040 onwards,” he said.
Weber claimed that this would mean that “all engines currently manufactured in Germany can therefore continue to be produced and sold.”
“With this, we are fulfilling our two most important promises: We remain committed to climate neutrality. But we are also ensuring technological neutrality. This sends an important signal to the entire automotive industry and secures tens of thousands of industrial jobs.”
However, such plans still need to be formalised and eventually passed by the European Parliament.
Even still, the apparent Weber agreement would still require a major transformation of the German auto industry, with 80 per cent of all new vehicles in the country being powered by gasoline or diesel, rather than electric.
The leader of the powerful centre-right Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), Markus Söder, said that the apparent agreement must only be the “first step”, saying that a quota of “ten per cent combustion engines is not enough.”
German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) President Hildegard Müller said: “For the German automotive industry, it is and remains crucial that a technology-neutral, pragmatic approach that takes global developments into account is chosen on the path to climate-neutral and digital mobility of the future.
“We welcome proposals that take this complexity into account and ensure that industrial value creation has a future in Germany and Europe and that investments can once again be made here.”
In addition to pressure from Germany, there was heavy opposition from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has sought to leverage her relationship with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to push back against the green agenda. Meloni had previously described plans to ban the combustion engine as “self-destructive”.
“Accompanying the industrial sector in the challenge of ecological transition cannot mean dismantling entire sectors,” she said last year.