Biggest EU legislator group wants 2035 combustion car ban revised

The European People's Party (EPP), the biggest group in the European parliament, will seek to weaken the bloc's planned 2035 phase-out of CO₂-emitting cars, a draft document showed.

The EPP won the biggest share of any legislators group in last month's European parliament elections with 188 of 720 members, cementing its influence in the EU assembly.

At a meeting in Portugal this week, legislators from the group are discussing policy priorities for the EU parliament's next five-year term.

A draft of those priorities, seen by Reuters, included 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”.

The EU passed a policy last year that will ban sales of new CO₂-emitting cars in 2035, effectively ending sales of new combustion engine vehicles running on petrol and diesel.

The European Commission has pledged, however, 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, after Germany demanded this exemption.

That could allow carmakers to develop and keep selling a new breed of combustion engine cars that only run on certified CO₂-neutral fuels and are equipped with technology to prevent them starting when filled with petrol or diesel.

The EPP did not specify in what ways it would want the car CO₂ policy changed. The document added the group wanted to “revise the ban on combustion engines and develop cutting-edge combustion engine technology”.

The draft document, if taken forward by the EPP, will pressure European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen — who belongs to the EPP group — over how she will manage Europe's green agenda as she seeks approval from a majority of EU legislators for a second term in her role.

Von der Leyen needs the EPP group's backing to secure a majority, but she faces the challenge of also needing to win over groups including the socialists and democrats, which are opposed to weakening Europe's policies to fight climate change.