The European Transport Ministers discussed the greening of company fleets at their Council meeting in Brussels on Thursday 4 December. With the European Commission due to present an automotive initiative on Wednesday 10 December (see EUROPE 13723/9), the ministers expressed their complete disagreement on this subject.
France, Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands have indicated their support for the forthcoming measure. The Czech Republic, Finland, Estonia, Poland, Germany, Bulgaria, Italy, Hungary and Slovakia were sceptical about it and even hostile.
For those arguing in favour, they are of the opinion that this measure would be a powerful lever for accelerating the decarbonisation of road transport; this is against a backdrop where half of all new registrations every year in the EU come from company fleets. Similarly, according to Frenchman Philippe Tabarot, it would “support European industry in its difficult transformation”. They are also defending the maintenance of the 2030 and 2035 targets for reducing CO2 emissions (see EUROPE 13735/3).
With regard to those arguing against it, they are advocating technological neutrality rather than ‘all electric’, and are in favour of incentives rather than obligations. In particular, there are fears that this will impose additional costs on businesses. They are also looking for climate objectives to be revised (see EUROPE 13761/3, 13762/27). In Finland’s view, it would be preferable to “concentrate on the application of existing regulations”.
Portugal remained neutral, preferring to wait for the European Commission’s proposal before making a decision. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)