Germany blocks the end of the combustion engine

It was supposed to be a mere formality.

However, we will have to wait a little longer to officially announce the end of thermal engines in the European Union by 2035 and the transition to all-electric.

The member states had to officially ratify this hard-negotiated decision on Tuesday 7 March.

The file, also completed with the European Parliament at the end of 2022, was only to pass this small procedural step.

But the German coalition has come to play spoilsport in recent days, for lack of a common position on this agreement.

And, without the voice of Berlin, it is the whole mechanics of this great text of the European climate package which is called into question.

Read alsoBrussels sounds the death knell for thermal engine trucks

Giorgia Meloni's Italy has also already announced that it will vote against, taking the opposite view from its predecessor, Mario Draghi, as have Poland and Bulgaria, who prefer to abstain.

Mathematically, a simple abstention from the German government would therefore make everything fall apart.

Sweden, which currently chairs the Council of the EU, understood this well and decided on Friday not to run the risk, while being careful not to put forward a new date.

Rarely seen in Brussels at this stage of the process, where everything is supposed to have already been settled down to the smallest detail, several sources commented on Friday, also quite surprised by this twist.

It's because the German coalition is no longer clear on this issue.

While

in Brussels, continues a source, the liberal FDP party and its German Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, resumed the fight in recent days against a project which, according to them, still does not sufficiently protect German manufacturers and their technological know-how.

“ 

also asked Thursday the Minister of Finance, Christian Lindner, member of the same party.

“Jacket reversal”

The Commission was therefore called upon to propose new arrangements.

Its proposal, initially presented in July 2021, plans to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars in Europe to zero from 2035 and therefore to halt sales of new petrol and diesel vehicles, including hybrid engines.

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- The European Parliament votes the end of heat engines in 2035

A project that had not only made people happy, the Stellantis group having itself at the time pointed out the cost of all-electric for consumers and the inadequacy of aid to buy these new vehicles.

There were also problems of access to charging stations.

Opposed from the start to this measure, Germany nevertheless ended up obtaining derogations during the negotiations, in particular on the continuation after 2035 of the production of cars with combustion engines using alternative fuels, such as synthetic fuels (e- fuels).

Rome had also obtained its Ferrari amendment, with luxury and niche cars (less than 10,000 vehicles per year) benefiting from a slight delay.

But the FDP has judged in recent days that it was necessary to further concrete this possibility of using alternative fuels.

indicates another familiar with the subject.

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Nothing to panic about?

In Brussels on Friday, some preferred to temporize and stick to a simple hiccup, noting that there was no urgency to organize this vote.

But the postponement has not gone unnoticed, particularly among MEPs from the EPP Group, Europe's right-wing, who simply rejoiced at the news and jumped into the breach by calling on more governments to vote against the legislation.

This ban on heat engines

reacted the German Jens Gieseke.

A little more discreet, another parliamentary source wondered, too, on Friday if this postponement did not foreshadow despite everything

In a very gloomy economic context in Europe, between energy costs and new commercial rivalries, against a backdrop of clean technologies, the cost of switching to all-electric remains a real “catalyst

”.