“He disgraced Germany”
Greens want to check Wissing’s combustion engine deal
3/25/2023 3:27 p.m
Volker Wissing has achieved his goal: at the urging of the Minister of Transport, combustion engines may also be permitted in the EU after 2035 if they refuel with e-fuels. The Greens are contrite but glad the chaos is over. Greenpeace speaks of blackmail. Only the car lobby seems happy.
Members of the European Parliament from the Greens want to take a close look at the combustion engine deal that the federal government and the EU Commission have agreed on. “We will carefully examine the proposal legally and politically,” announced Rasmus Andresen, spokesman for the German Greens in the European Parliament. At the same time, however, he also emphasized that it was good that the impasse was finally over.
Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke made a similar statement. “Anything else would have severely damaged both trust in the European procedures and in Germany’s reliability in European politics,” said the Greens politician. With the agreement, the automotive industry now has clarity for its conversion to electromobility. “E-fuels will – as we have always said – play an important role. Especially for those areas that cannot easily switch to efficient electric motors.”
“Ruthless Blackmail”
Greenpeace is much more critical of the agreement, which, according to Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing, would now allow cars with combustion engines to be registered after 2035. “This rotten compromise undermines climate protection in transport and it harms Europe,” said the environmental organization’s mobility expert, Benjamin Stephan. The “urgently needed focus of the automotive industry on efficient electromobility” will be watered down with the agreement.
Stephan accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of not having stopped the “ruthless blackmailing of the EU” by the FDP. “After this disappointing result, it is all the more clear that Scholz must persuade the FDP to take effective measures to protect the climate in traffic at tomorrow’s coalition committee,” he said. “Instead of traversing the country with more climate-damaging highways, the federal government should now concentrate fully on expanding the railways.”
praise from automobile manufacturers
The President of the German Association of the Automotive Industry, on the other hand, sees the agreement as a positive signal for climate protection. “We need all climate-friendly technologies to achieve the EU climate goals,” said Hildegard Müller. It is in the interest of the climate that Berlin and Brussels have obviously found an agreement with a corresponding timetable. E-mobility remains the key technology for achieving climate targets in transport.
However, so-called e-fuels – which refers to artificially produced, climate-neutral fuels – are an important expansion. Müller also emphasized: “The final details of the agreement have yet to be evaluated.”
After weeks of wrangling, the EU Commission and the federal government had reached an agreement in the dispute over the future of new cars with internal combustion engines. The responsible EU Commission Vice Frans Timmermans wrote on Twitter that an agreement had been reached with Germany on the future use of so-called e-fuels in cars. According to Wissing, concrete procedural steps and a concrete schedule have been fixed in a binding manner. “We want the process to be completed by autumn 2024.”
Critics complain that the production of e-fuels requires a relatively large amount of energy and that fuels are scarce.
“Wissing disgraced Germany”
The background to the dispute was the fundamental agreement between the European Parliament and EU states, according to which only zero-emission new cars may be registered in the EU from 2035. But Wissing wanted to allow new cars with combustion engines that use e-fuels – i.e. climate-neutral artificial fuels that are produced with green electricity. On behalf of Germany, Wissing had therefore prevented confirmation of the agreement by the EU states, which was planned for early March.
In the opinion of the Greens in the European Parliament, he has damaged Germany’s reputation internationally. “Wissing has embarrassed the federal government. It is unbelievable that Chancellor Scholz covered up this chaos for weeks,” commented Green spokesman Andresen on the procedure. According to Terry Reintke, leader of the Greens group in the EU Parliament, the blockade has caused great damage.