In a letter dated Monday 8 December, several French ministers asked the European Commission “to make the regulation on CO2 emissions [from vehicles] as much a tool of industrial sovereignty as an environmental standard”.
While Friedrich Merz, the German Federal Chancellor, has asked the Commission for more flexibility regarding the ban on the production of new internal combustion engine vehicles after 2035 (see EUROPE 13762/27), France will support these targeted flexibilities, particularly in terms of technological neutrality, “as long as they are accompanied by and conditional on clear regulatory incentive mechanisms for production in Europe that favour industrial jobs”.
“Our common objective should be regulations favourable to European production that reconcile environmental protection with our industrial sovereignty”, argued the ministers.
This letter comes at a time when the Commission has announced that it may review the ban on the sale of new vehicles with internal combustion engines in 2035 (see EUROPE 13760/15) and the EU Council has so far been divided on the issue (see EUROPE 13719/4). The Commission is due to present an automotive initiative on Tuesday 16 December (see EUROPE 13723/9).
Read the letter (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/jxi (Original version in French by Anne Damiani, with Solenn Paulic)