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Finance Minister Lindner: I don't want to give up the combustion engine
Photo: Uwe Koch / Eibner press photo / IMAGO
After his refusal to support the end of the internal combustion engine in the EU, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) has been confronted with sharp criticism from the ranks of the coalition partners.
»Anyone who refuses ambitious goals is blocking innovative paths.
This is not about the personal hobbies of car fan Christian Lindner, but about averting the climate catastrophe, "said SPD party leader Thomas Kutschaty to SPIEGEL.
»A veto from an ideological reflex prevents a crucial element in achieving climate neutrality.
In the end, the traffic light parties agreed to leave combustion engine technology behind.”
The Greens are also angry.
»Inwardly, Christian Lindner already seems to be in opposition.
The country is going through a major crisis, but it is all about partisan politics.
That's irresponsible," criticized Rasmus Andresen, chairman of the German Greens in the European Parliament.
Stefan Gelbhaar, traffic expert for the Green parliamentary group, said: »The coalition agreement is very clear when it comes to fleet limits, the approval has been agreed.
Christian Lindner will have to explain himself.«
Lindner said yesterday at Industry Day that he thought it was wrong to ban the internal combustion engine.
"I have therefore decided that I will not agree to this European legislation in the federal government," he said.
Unfortunately, the forthcoming EU decision is not open to technology.
The EU Parliament recently approved the core of a Commission proposal that stipulates that the fleet limits will be zero from 2035.
This applies to passenger cars and light commercial vehicles and means that cars newly registered in Europe will no longer be able to emit any CO₂.
This means that internal combustion engines would be banned.
However, the Council, in which representatives of the governments of the member states sit, still has to agree.
In the coalition agreement, the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP had included these EU plans, approved them and even held out the prospect of an earlier end to combustion engines in Germany: »According to the proposals of the European Commission, only CO2-neutral vehicles will be used in the transport sector in Europe by 2035 approved - this will have an effect in Germany earlier.
Outside the existing system of fleet limit values, we are committed to ensuring that only vehicles that can be refueled with e-fuels can be newly registered.«
Greens and the responsible Federal Ministry for the Environment explain these sentences as follows: For cars that are subject to fleet limits, the internal combustion engine is then at the end.
For other vehicles to which these limit values do not apply, such as tractors or trucks, a solution using synthetic climate-neutral fuels, as the FDP would like, would be conceivable.
The preamble to the coalition agreement also states: "Step by step we are ending the fossil age, also by (...) leaving the technology of the internal combustion engine behind."
The Ministry of the Environment had drawn up instructions for March 3rd and again for the Permanent Representatives Committee on May 13th, in which the Commission's proposals for the end of combustion engines were approved, and the text of which was agreed with Lindner's Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry of the Environment announced accordingly that the federal government "fully supports the proposal of the Commission and the European Parliament to only allow new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles with zero-emission drives from 2035".
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in Berlin on Wednesday that the federal government had not yet determined its position on voting on an EU ban on internal combustion engines.
"The federal government is in talks right now," he said.
"After that, it will be announced how she will behave in the responsible committee," he added, referring to the vote in the EU environment committee on June 28.
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