The Vice President of Competition and Fair and Clean Transition of the European Commission, Teresa Ribera, flatly rejects that there is a plan to delay the ban on the sale of diesel and gasoline cars scheduled for 2035. That was one of the main measures of the European Green Deal promoted by the first cabinet of Ursula von der Leyen and, when its final approval arrived, it encountered stiff resistance to move forward. Germany put it at risk and the European People’s Party and the extreme right opposed it in the European Parliament. Now, in the midst of a struggle with powers like China, which is flooding the European market with its electric vehicles, the pressure has increased.
“It is not something that the European Commission is considering and it is not something that practically anyone is considering,” Ribera responded to the question of whether the community government is considering delaying the entry into force of this measure. As published by the Italian newspaper La StampaVon der Leyen has convened a table with the transport sector to address the ‘EU Industrial Action Plan for the automobile sector’. The German company’s intention is to define a broad long-term strategy for issues such as investments or the development of electric car infrastructure, but the industry will put on the table the fines that they will have to pay from 2025 for failing to meet emissions targets and the revision of the regulations that foresee the prohibition of combustion vehicles within a decade.
The European People’s Party has led the opposition to that measure for months. “We reject a policy of prohibition, such as that of combustion engines,” the party led by German Manfred Weber established in a manifesto on the eve of the European elections last June. The position represented an amendment to the entirety of one of Von der Leyen’s main policies in her first term: the green agenda. But pressure from the industry and the right is largely weakening ambition. The entry into force of the law that aims to combat deforestation has recently been delayed and measures such as reducing the use of pesticides have been withdrawn due to farmers’ protests.
Now the popular Europeans have gained strength in the EU. In the European Parliament they can assemble with the far-right an alternative majority to the coalition with socialists and liberals that they have already used on some occasions in the short period of the legislature. And in the European Commission, fourteen of its members, in addition to Von der Leyen, belong to that political family, while four are socialists and five are liberals. There is also a vice president of the extreme right of Giorgia Meloni.
“The big question is how we can combine and accompany the European automobile industry in a transformation process that is underway and in a global industrial race that was activated years ago,” explained Ribera, who has rejected the possibility of delaying the ban on the sale of combustion vehicles: “The stability with respect to the time horizons, the reasons why these objectives were set remain valid and, in principle, there is no intention to change them.”
Gesture with the steel industry in full decarbonization
Regarding the possibility of making the fines foreseen for the automotive sector more flexible from 2035 if they fail to meet emissions targets, it has been less categorical. “The most important message today is how to design strategies that allow the entire European automobile industry to emerge successfully from a very complicated situation with a very important production and entry into the European market of automobiles from third countries. with a need to avoid new trade wars, but simultaneously with a need to guarantee the viability of an industry that is fundamental not only from the point of view of employment but also from the point of view of innovation and solutions to demands of mobility that have to be increasingly decarbonized.”
Ribera spoke like this in her first public event as vice president of the European Commission, which she attended with the vice president for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné. Both, together with the Belgian Prime Minister, Alenxander De Croo, have visited an ArcelorMittal factory in Ghent, which is one of the largest in the European steel industry that is facing problems precisely due to competition from China and which has decided to freeze investments in clean technologies in the EU until knowing Brussels’ aid plans. Von der Leyen’s intention is to present a Clean Industry Agreement in the first 100 days of the mandate.
“We know that the reasons why we implement the entire green strategy are more important than ever and are good drivers for innovation, adaptation and updating of industrial capabilities. However, we also know that there are many challenges ahead that must be addressed in a coherent manner,” said Ribera, who has acknowledged being aware of the “energy pressure” and the “overcapacity of production” of materials such as aluminum and steel for part of other powers. “We need to guarantee a level playing field and the opportunity to develop and ensure that these facilities remain in Europe,” he said.
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