The European Commission and Germany announced on Saturday that they had reached an agreement to unlock a key article in the EU’s plan for CO2 emissions from cars, easing the ban on the use of internal combustion engines after 2035, AFP reported.

Berlin surprised its EU partners in early March by blocking a last-minute regulation that would have cut CO2 emissions from new cars to zero, effectively mandating the sale of only electric cars from the middle of the next decade.

The text was already agreed in October between the member states and negotiators of the European Parliament with the green light of Germany, and was approved in mid-February by MEPs.

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To justify its change of heart, which is unusual at this stage of the procedure, Germany asked the Commission to present a proposal that would pave the way for vehicles running on synthetic fuels.

This technology, which is still under development, involves the production of fuel from CO2 produced by industrial activity.

It is promoted by German and Italian premium carmakers and will allow the continued use of internal combustion engines after 2035.

In recent weeks, the Commission has negotiated a way out of the crisis with Germany, which demanded tougher commitments on synthetic fuels, which were already mentioned in the original text, but in a clause that was considered too weak from a legal point of view.

“We have reached an agreement with Germany on the future use of synthetic fuels in cars,” European Environment Commissioner Frans Timmermans announced on Twitter on Saturday.

“We will now work to adopt the regulation on CO2 standards for cars as soon as possible,” he added.

Controversial technology

“Vehicles with internal combustion engines can be registered after 2035 if they use only CO2-neutral fuels,” German Transport Minister Volker Wissing also announced on Twitter.

Synthetic fuel technology is opposed by environmental non-governmental organizations, which consider it expensive, energy-consuming and polluting.

Also, many automotive experts doubt that it will be able to compete in the market with electric cars, the prices of which are expected to fall in the coming years.

Even if they prove useful, synthetic fuels, which do not currently exist, “will not play an important role in the medium term in the passenger car segment,” Markus Dussmann, head of Audi (Volkswagen group), told the weekly Spiegel. .

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