Berlin, Brussels This Wednesday, the EU countries will vote on the end of the internal combustion engine. It’s actually just a compromise that has been negotiated for a long time. But the FDP is now questioning this compromise again and could thus overturn the law that was negotiated over a year and a half.
“We need a binding answer to the question of how to deal with combustion engines after 2035,” said Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) on Tuesday. The FDP’s approval was always subject to the condition that the EU Commission made a corresponding proposal.
The Federal Environment Ministry is now correspondingly upset: “It’s about the diplomatic reliability of the Federal Government in the EU,” it said there.
Should the combustion ban come about, it would be a setback for some German automakers, as they continue to make good money from petrol and diesel-powered cars while lagging behind the competition from China and the USA for electric cars.
The discussion is no longer about whether petrol or diesel can continue to be used. The EU plans to slowly increase the proportion of e-fuels in fuels. As long as combustion engines are operated in Europe, this “existing fleet” can continue to be fueled with them. It is also undisputed that cars that are registered for the first time after 2035 should be climate-neutral.
The EU Commission is taking its time
The dispute revolves around whether cars whose engines burn pure e-fuels should also be considered climate-neutral. In the process, CO2 is emitted, but in the best case only as much as was removed from the air during the production of the e-fuels.
Climate protectors reject e-fuels in road traffic because their production consumes a lot of electricity and charging an electric car is much more efficient. Since electricity produced from renewable sources will remain scarce for the foreseeable future, in her opinion, e-fuels should only be used where it can hardly be avoided, such as in ships and airplanes.
The FDP still wants to save the internal combustion engine in cars and announced a success last year. At their pressure, the draft law now states: “… the Commission will submit a proposal for the approval after 2035 of vehicles that run exclusively on CO2-neutral fuels…”
>> Read here: EU wants to reduce CO2 emissions from trucks and buses by 90 percent
The law and thus also the request to the EU Commission are not yet in force. Nevertheless, it makes the FDP apparently nervous that the commission has not yet moved. When asked when a proposal could be expected, a Commission spokesman on Tuesday referred to a statement by Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, who made it clear last summer that he would comply with the request, but not commit to a specific date become.
How drivers would get the e-fuels into their vehicles is still unclear.
(Photo: dpa)
How the request of the FDP is to be implemented technically is so far unclear. It would be conceivable to install narrower filler necks in combustion cars and to offer climate-neutral e-fuels at filling stations via thinner taps.
The opposition supports Minister Wissing. The CDU/CSU parliamentary group represents “objectively the same position,” said parliamentary director Thorsten Frei. “It can’t be a question of the state dictating which technology has to prevail.” On Friday, the parliamentary group will submit a motion to the Bundestag in which it calls on the federal government to be open to technology in the drives of cars and trucks. This also applies to the use of biofuels and synthetic fuels, as explained by transport policy spokesman Thomas Bareiß.
Mockery of “German Vote”
Since the federal government cannot agree on a common position, the German representative in the Council of EU Member States must now abstain. In Wednesday’s vote, that’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the EU, Helen Winter. After that, a decision has to be made again at ministerial level.
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Since it should actually only be a matter of formality, according to Brussels practice, there is no waiting until the next meeting of the ministers. Instead, it is envisaged that the education ministers will vote on the item without discussion at their meeting on March 7, because everything is actually clear.
Poland and Bulgaria are likely to vote against the law. Italy has also announced a need for discussion. Those three would not be enough to jeopardize the required majority. Together with Germany, however, they could let the law fail. For a decision to be adopted in the Council, the yes votes must represent 65 percent of the EU population and 55 percent of the member states. An abstention is like a no vote.
Because the traffic light coalition often disagrees, there have already been several abstentions. In Brussels people scoff at the “German Vote”. This led to Germany having to largely stay out of the discussion when it came to laws on wage transparency and the upper cash limit. The Permanent Representative of Germany to the EU, Michael Clauss, has already complained in Berlin that he is often unable to speak in Brussels because the coordination between the ministries does not work.
So far, however, Germany has not abstained from a negotiated compromise that the federal government had already agreed to.
Regardless of the discussion about phasing out combustion engines, the traffic light coalition agreed on Tuesday to allow synthetic fuels for traffic. This means that petrol stations can now offer this product and drivers can fill up with it. However, this only contributes to climate protection if these fuels are mainly produced with electricity generated from renewable sources.
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