A draft document from the EU’s largest lawmaker group, the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), appears to show that it could seek to weaken the bloc’s planned 2035 phase-out of CO2-emitting ICE cars, according to a Reuters report.
The Reuters report said the group did not specify in what ways it would want the car CO2 policy changed. However, the document reportedly said it wanted to “revise the ban on combustion engines and develop cutting-edge combustion engine technology”, alongside the aim of “revising the rules for CO2 reduction for new cars and vans to allow for the use of alternative zero-emission fuels beyond 2035”.
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After an exemption was demanded by Germany, the European Commission has pledged to create a legal route for sales of new cars that only run on “e-fuels” (synthetic fuels) that can be used in a combustion engine car instead of petrol to continue after 2035.
The centre-right EPP has its origins in European Christian Democratic and liberal conservative parties across the EU region. The grouping includes major centre-right parties such as the CDU/CSU of Germany, and Republicans in France. It won the biggest share of any lawmaker group in last month’s European Parliament elections with 188 out of the total 720 lawmakers.
At the start of this year, the EPP’s leaked election manifesto said: “We reject a ban policy – such as the ban on combustion engines – and will also revise it as soon as possible.”
