Brussels, 28/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The day before the European Council, German Chancellor Angela Merkel lobbied Taoiseach Enda Kenny, with the result that the outgoing Irish Presidency of the EU Council agreed to defer the vote at Coreper scheduled for 26 June until further notice. The vote was on the modalities for reducing CO2 emissions from new cars by 2020, after this had been the subject of a political agreement in trialogue two days earlier confirming the target of 95 grams of CO2/km (see EUROPE 10876 and 10874). Without mentioning this phone call or the specific interests of German manufacturers of large saloon cars, Merkel confirmed the deferral when speaking on Friday 28 June after the European Council in Brussels.
“We have taken pains to ensure that the vote does not take place. The result of the negotiations had been given to us shortly before. It is a matter of employment, of coordinating industrial policies. Time is needed. We must ensure that we are not deprived of our industrial base” (our translation), Merkel said in response to a question by a German journalist who asked whether the other delegations had any objections.
This intervention at the highest level, denounced on Thursday by Mathias Groote, who chairs the environment committee at the European Parliament, is hardly a secret and neither is the lobbying by German automobile manufacturers who are concerned by the 95g/km target on average for the European fleet of new cars (the average emissions level for German makers of large saloon cars being currently 147g CO2/km). Before Merkel addressed the press, EU senior officials had hoped to present the deferral of the vote as a general consensus, several delegations being keen to have sufficient time to analyse the result of the negotiation in trialogue that had been given to them the day before. NGOs belonging to the “Clear Car” campaign suspect Germany of stalling tactics in the hope that, with Croatia's accession to the EU, a blocking minority may be formed within the Council of the EU. (AN/transl.jl)