Dispute over combustion engines: Lindner calls for improvements

Created: 06/22/2022, 16:18

In the fight for more climate protection, the EU Parliament wants to ban the sale of new cars with combustion engines from 2035.

© Marijan Murat//dpa

The EU wants to completely ban the sale of new cars with combustion engines from 2035 for climate protection reasons.

Finance Minister Lindner does not want to agree - and calls for a modification of the plan.

Berlin – Finance Minister Christian Lindner has called for improvements in the dispute over the planned EU-wide end of combustion engines from 2035 and at the same time signaled a willingness to talk.

The head of the FDP said on Wednesday in Berlin, on the sidelines of a trade union conference of the German Tax Union, that synthetic fuels should have a perspective as an option.

“Climate neutrality is just as possible with synthetic liquid fuels in piston engines.

If that can be mapped at European level, there is nothing to prevent approval.”

However, the current proposal is not enough.

"That means we can speak again if the legislative proposal had been modified," said Lindner.

FDP parliamentary group leader Lukas Koehler also confirmed on Wednesday that Germany could not agree to the EU plans "in the form now proposed".

"It would be a big mistake to ban the internal combustion engine and thus also exclude climate-neutral fuels from the competition for the best climate protection technologies," said Köhler of the German Press Agency.

Even if the ban came, according to Köhler, “well over a billion existing vehicles with internal combustion engines in the world would need a climate-friendly perspective”.

He fears that a ban would slow down their development.

Federal government in discussion

Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Wednesday about the dispute in the coalition about phasing out combustion engines, the federal government is currently in talks.

Then it will be announced how she will behave in the responsible EU committee.

The FDP rejects a ban on the sale of new cars with combustion engines from 2035 at EU level.

The liberals are demanding that vehicles with combustion engines can be re-registered after 2035 if they can be proven to be fueled only with e-fuels.

However, the plans so far do not provide for this.

The Green-led Ministry of the Environment advocates phasing out combustion engines from 2035.

At the meeting of EU environment ministers next Tuesday, the EU states want to adopt their position on the project.

The decision does not have to be unanimous, a qualified majority is sufficient.

Germany could also abstain from the vote if the fronts remain as hardened as they are at the moment.

dpa