The EU Parliament has given its final approval for phasing out internal combustion engines for new cars in 2035. On Tuesday in Strasbourg, a majority of MPs voted in favor of banning the registration of cars with diesel and petrol engines from 2035. The vote was about formal approval of an agreement between Parliament and member states in October.
After the agreement, the final approval of the negotiation result was still missing. The member states had already given the green light in November, and now Parliament has followed suit. The agreement stipulates that only emission-free cars and vans will be newly registered. One point of contention in the negotiations was whether there should be an exception for cars powered by synthetic fuels. Loopholes for eFuelsThese so-called eFuels are usually produced from water and CO2 using electricity. According to the October agreement, the EU Commission should examine whether vehicles with such a combustion engine could still be registered in the future. At the instigation of the FDP, the German government had campaigned at EU level to ensure that eFuels were not ruled out from the outset.Austria’s MEPs splitThe Austrian MEPs were already split before the vote. In a press conference on the sidelines of the Strasbourg plenary week, the ÖVP and FPÖ warned of economic and social consequences, while the SPÖ, Greens and NEOS welcomed the measure given up on their key technologies, then February 14, 2023 will come out,” said EU-ÖVP MEP Barbara Thaler, who announced her delegation’s no before the vote. “That does not mean that we are against climate protection,” emphasized Thaler, but they would also include competitiveness and the social component. Thaler also warned that the EU would “abolish its own leading industry independently” and make itself dependent on raw materials from China. SPÖ is satisfied On the other hand, the head of the SPÖ delegation in the EU Parliament, Andreas Schieder, was satisfied with the measure. It is also a politically exciting question: “We have the impression that a part of the House, especially around the European People’s Party, is moving away from the ‘Green Deal’.” , stressed Schieder.FPÖ: “China rubs its hands” For the liberal EU mandater Roman Haider, this is a “measure that simply fizzles out”. In his view, this would “destroy” industry and “destroy” prosperity in Europe. “China, India, Russia and the USA are rubbing their hands,” said Haider. More than 200 coal-fired power plants would now be built in China alone. In addition, the measures taken as part of the “Green Deal” would make Europe even more dependent on the rest of the world and ultimately achieve nothing. “Global CO2 emissions continue to rise,” says Haider. Greens: “Important step” “The 100 percent end for new registrations of combustion engines by 2035 is an important step in directing private transport towards zero-emission and low-emission vehicles,” said the Green MEP Thomas Waitz according to the broadcast. “A step that even the auto industry welcomes.” He criticized the conservatives who “stick to fossil polluters to the end”. NEOS: “From a certain day no more emissions” NEOS MEP Claudia Gamon emphasized that the EU is setting a “very positive global example”. New registrations for cars with combustion engines would “decrease sharply” and registrations for e-cars would “clearly increase,” said the liberal EU mandatary. This means that consumers “accept it”. It is also not the case that “the burner will be banned”, Gamon explained, but that from “a certain day there can be no more emissions – with the exhaust, so to speak. We’ll see what else hits the market before then.”
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