The European Parliament approved the urgent procedure for a targeted amendment to the CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles at its plenary session in Strasbourg on Tuesday 6 May.
This amendment is part of the Industrial Action Plan for the Automotive Sector presented by the European Commission in early April (see EUROPE 13612/14). The aim is to introduce flexibility: manufacturers’ compliance with the CO2 targets for 2025, 2026 and 2027 would thus be assessed over the whole three-year period by calculating the average of their performance, rather than on an annual basis. This will allow manufacturers to compensate for any excessive annual emissions by outperforming the target in the remaining year(s). This vote allows the Parliament to vote on the proposal on Thursday 8 May.
Before the vote, MEPs were able to briefly debate the subject. On the right of the Chamber, the vote in favour of this measure makes sense. “The automotive industry is a cornerstone of European industry“, declared Jens Gieseke (EPP, German), deeming this flexibility necessary. “We will also meet the climate targets, so it’s a win-win situation”.
For Carlo Fidanza (ECR, Italian), it is insufficient, as the problem of fines will continue to affect the heavy goods vehicle sector. He called for full respect for the principle of technological neutrality. Jordan Bardella (PfE, French) considered that this three-year moratorium would solve nothing and criticised the industrial policy based on degrowth. Siegbert Frank Droese (ESN, German) even wants to abolish all prescriptions on emissions.
For his part, Mohammed Chahim (S&D, Dutch) acknowledged that his group was not particularly in favour of the proposal, but qualified this by referring to the urgent nature of the measure, in the face of tariffs on European cars, steel tariffs and the extortion of energy by autocratic States. “European manufacturers must see this as their last warning”, he said, as did Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy (Renew Europe, Dutch).
Kai Tegethoff (Greens/EFA, German) and Per Clausen (The Left, Danish) regretted this measure, which leaves European industry even further behind. “This will penalise companies that have invested in electric cars and will weaken confidence in EU policy”, said Per Clausen. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)