The Conservatives and the car industry are mainly calling for a review of the total ban on petrol and diesel cars by 2035, but they have a more pressing goal and specific demands: to remove penalties against manufacturers who have failed to meet carbon dioxide reduction targets that enter into force this 2025. From next year, community regulations require that vehicles cannot pollute more than 93.6 grams of carbon dioxide emissions per kilometer
The employer’s aim is to abolish the fines for manufacturers who do not meet the emission targets, which can rise to €15,000 M
However, this year the average has far exceeded this threshold and has remained at 106 grams of CO₂, and in 2023 it will reach 117. For this reason, the European Association of Automobile Manufacturers (ACEA, in its acronyms in English) admits that there are many manufacturers who are already late to comply with these limits and estimates that the penalties that the sector would have to face would exceed 15,000 millions of euros.
In this sense, both the main employer of the sector in the EU and the PPE believe that the imposition of multimillion-dollar fines should be avoided at a time when the sector must make an extra effort not to be left behind in the electric car market. “All this money will not go to investment,” ACEA president and Renault CEO Luca de Meo said at an event in Brussels in early December.
The president of the EPP, Manfred Weber, who is one of the voices most critical of the green agenda in Brussels, despite being from the same party as Von der Leyen, has spoken along the same lines on more than one occasion. The Conservative leader is calling for “flexibility” in Europe’s motoring sector so it can cope with the overstretch it needs to compete with electric car brands from the US and China. “The European car industry is facing unprecedented pressure, both from within and without,” argue the Conservatives in a press release.
Volvo has always been in favor of accelerating the green transition
However, the automotive sector does not have a unanimous position on the green agenda of Brussels and Volvo has always been in favor of accelerating the steps towards the green transition, just as the American industry and the chinese “Electrification is the most important measure that the automotive industry can take, both for climate change and for European competitiveness. Questioning the CO₂ target is not the answer,” said the director at another event in Brussels of Volvo Sustainability, Vanessa Butani.
The right-wing and far-right majority in the European Parliament
Von der Leyen’s European Commission pushed through the green plan at a time when only the extreme right was clearly opposed to environmental measures and with a European Parliament governed by what is known as the grand center coalition of conservatives, social democrats and liberals However, the current context is very different and Von der Leyen is giving in to pressure from her own party and more conservative state leaders.
After the European elections last June, the right and the extreme right have a majority and they no longer need the social democrats and liberals to overturn environmental regulations. So, although she has been one of its great defenders, the head of the Community executive has already announced a “strategic dialogue” in the Eurochamber on the ban on combustion engine cars by 2035, which it can be a first step to modify it.
Beyond the European Parliament, there are also member states that are calling for a review of the legislation, especially those with conservative governments, such as Poland, or far-right governments, such as Italy. However, they are not the only ones: the country with the largest automotive industry in the European Union, Germany, has criticized the ambition of the environmental measure and especially the fines that are expected to be borne by the sector. “This money must stay in the companies so they can modernize,” asked the German chancellor, the social democrat Olaf Scholz.
