The 27 member states of the EU definitively approved on Tuesday the end of heat engines in new cars from 2035, a central measure of the climate plan of the 27, formalizing a green light already granted the day before.
Thus, the text is validated which will force new cars to no longer emit any CO2 from the middle of the next decade, effectively banning petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles, in favor of all-electric vehicles. Among the Twenty-Seven, only Poland voted against.
Italy, Romania and Bulgaria abstained during this vote of the energy ministers of the EU (European Union) meeting in Brussels.
The day before, the ambassadors of the 27 had agreed to proceed with this formal adoption on Tuesday, the final stage of a long legislative process.
This text is part of the European objective of carbon neutrality in 2050. Berlin had stunned its partners in early March by blocking the regulation when it had already been approved in mid-February by MEPs meeting in plenary, after a green light member states, including Germany.
To justify its volte-face, extremely rare at this stage of the procedure, Germany had demanded that the Commission present a proposal opening the way to vehicles running on synthetic fuels.
This technology, controversial and still in development, would consist in producing fuel from CO2 resulting from industrial activities.
Defended by high-end German and Italian manufacturers, it would extend the use of heat engines after 2035. The European Commission and Germany announced on Saturday that they had reached an agreement to unblock the text, which remains unchanged.
Brussels has simply undertaken to pave the way more clearly for synthetic fuels in a separate proposal which will have to be validated by autumn 2024.
Vehicles equipped with a combustion engine can be registered after 2035 if they only use neutral fuels in terms of CO2 emissions, welcomed German Transport Minister Volker Wissing.
In the opinion of many experts, the technology of synthetic fuels has little chance of imposing itself on the market and would, at best, concern only a minority of luxury vehicles.
It is contested by environmental NGOs who consider it costly, energy-intensive and polluting.
