On the sidelines of the European Council on Thursday 15 October, France and Germany reached a provisional agreement to coordinate their positions on two key EU texts for the automotive sector: the targeted revision of the ‘automotive package’ and the draft Industrial Accelerator Act (see EUROPE 13954/2).
According to AFP, as we went to press, finalisation of the agreement was still subject to approval by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), a member of Germany’s governing coalition.
This ‘preliminary agreement’ centres on the following compromise: the decarbonisation and electrification trajectory set out in the revision of the automotive package would remain unchanged, but would include a number of flexibilities. These would concern, in particular, the ‘multipliers’ or ‘super-credits’ granted to European manufacturers (see EUROPE 13889/19), as well as the ‘smoothing’ of penalties for manufacturers.
The definition of ‘Made in Europe’ would also be strengthened to include all Member States, as well as European Economic Area countries and other economies, such as the United Kingdom. (Original version in French by Juliette Verdes)