The policy debate held by European environment ministers on Monday 25 June, in Luxembourg, on the proposal for a regulation establishing emissions performance standards for new cars and vans confirmed that the future Austrian presidency will still have a great deal of work to do to reach a general direction by October, to reach an agreement by the end of the year, as the Commission would like.
“The debate showed that positions vary on the level of ambition due to national specificities, but we have paved the way for reaching a compromise”, said the Bulgarian minister, Neno Dimov, who chaired the Council for the last time.
The ministers should take a stance on adequacy between the level of ambition of the targets proposed for 2025 (-15% compared to 2021) and 2030 (-30%) and the competitiveness challenge of the European motor industry as well as on the relevance of incentive mechanisms for the marketing of vehicles with low or no emissions.
The debate confirmed the existence of two camps: those who call for realism and flexibility (Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic in particular), deeming the 2030 objective is too ambitious and not wanting a binding objective in 2025; and the more ambitious (Luxembourg, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia) who hope to go beyond the -40% for 2030, or even wanting binding objectives for both stages, such as Finland, or who want, like Luxembourg, to stress that a 60-70% emissions reduction is required and possible as well as a clear quota for electric cars. Germany did not give any figure as a desirable objective.
Only Croatia and Cyprus consider that the objectives for 2025 and 2030 are at the right level.
The incentives proposed for zero emission or no emission vehicles deserve to be completed, for example, by a bonus-penalties system, as the Netherlands suggested, but some delegations warned against the risk that incentives do not respect technological neutrality by favouring electric cars to the detriment of hybrid vehicles.
Low income countries warned against the risk of seeing polluting vehicles imported onto their territory from European countries with higher GDP. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)