Italy’s Minister for Enterprise, Adolfo Urso, took advantage of his presence at the Competitiveness Council in Brussels on Thursday 26 September to question his counterparts on the subject of CO2 emissions from light vehicles. He believes that the objective of zero emissions by 2035 remains valid, but that this will require an adjustment to the current programme. In this instance, he is asking the European Commission to anticipate a safeguard clause to revise the 2025 targets for CO2 emissions. According to the Italian minister, “a sufficient majority of countries” are ready to support his request, which should be detailed in a memo in the coming weeks.
From 2025, the average permitted threshold per vehicle will fall by 15%, to a maximum of 90 to 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre, but some car industry representatives believe that they will not be able to meet the deadlines and will be subject to fines.
This is why these representatives, and now Italy, are calling for the exercise of the revision clause scheduled for the end of 2026 on the text of CO2 emissions from light vehicles to be brought forward. “We will propose the first half of 2025”, said Mr Urso after the Competitiveness Council.
The German State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Sven Giegold, spoke out against this position before the meeting: “Neither my minister nor anyone [in the German government] has called for the 2025 targets to be suspended”, he said, despite Mr Urso’s statement that he had the agreement of the German Economics Minister, Robert Habeck, on the 2025 standards.
The Hungarian Presidency added a ‘Miscellaneous’ item on the subject of the automotive industry to the ministers’ agenda at the last minute. At the request of several Member States, the Hungarian Presidency did not make the session public.
Speaking to the press, the Hungarian Minister of State for Economic Strategy, Máté Lóga, said that the discussion had focused on the conclusions of the high-level conference held the previous day in Brussels with the sector concerned.
“Some [representatives] suggested earlier review of emissions regulations while others emphasised that without clear and timely guidance, manufacturers might hesitate to commit themselves to a larger scale of production shift”, he reported. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)