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EU legislator group will challenge the combustion engine ban in this year

EU legislator group will challenge the combustion engine ban in this year

The European Parliament's largest lawmaker group announced on Wednesday that it would attempt to overturn the European Union’s main climate policy for vehicles – a 2035 prohibition on the sales of new CO2-emitting cars – during a review this year.

Supporters of the ban say that it is vital to Europe's green goals and for guiding automotive industry's low carbon transformation. Critics say the ban will hurt European automakers who are already facing a weak market, Chinese competition, and disappointing sales of electric vehicles.

Jens Gieseke is the European People's Party (EPP)'s negotiator for car policies. He told the group that a review of the policy planned in the third quarter or fourth would be used to make amendments.

The report will include proposals for changes, such as the sale of cars powered by combustion engines that run on biofuels and synthetic fuels beyond 2035.

Gieseke said, "It would have been a mistake to prohibit the combustion engine." "If fuels have a lower carbon footprint, then this should be acknowledged."

Ursula von der Leyen is the president of the European Commission and belongs to the EPP. She has, so far, resisted the pressure to weaken 2035, which she says offers investment certainty.

The Commission, however, last week accelerated the review of 2026 policy for this year and gave in to the pressure of automakers, giving them three instead one year to meet the 2025 emission limit.

Gieseke stated that if the other EU legislators agreed, then the 2035 goal could be included in the negotiations for the 2025 limit as soon as next month.

Any changes to car policies must be approved by a majority in the European Parliament, and by a consolidated majority of EU member countries.

Italy, the Czech Republic and Friedrich Merz's party, the likely successor to the German chancellor, have all pledged to revise 2035 as a target. A senior EU diplomat, however, said that for the time being, most countries do not support changing the 2035 target.

The EPP currently holds 188 out of 720 seats at the European Parliament, but any change would require the support of other groups.

Right-wing EU legislators favor changing the policy for 2035. Socialists, Greens and other EU lawmakers oppose lowering emissions targets and say that the focus should instead be on supporting carmakers in their transition to electric cars and catching up with Chinese rivals.

Mohammed Chahim, a socialist EU legislator, warned that the "nostalgia for traditional vehicles" could stifle innovation during a debate in the European Parliament on Wednesday.

He said, "I feel as if I was in the Nokia boardroom when the iPhone first came out." (Reporting and editing by Kate Abnett)

(source: Reuters)