The German authorities have declared that they are waiting for a proposal from the European Commission allowing vehicles to run on synthetic fuels, even after 2035.
It was to be a formality, to validate a key measure of the European Union’s environmental objectives. The vote of the 27 EU member states to confirm the ban on the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines in 2035, scheduled for Tuesday March 7, has been postponed due to the blocking of Germany, making it impossible to form the required majority. The ambassadors of the Twenty-Seven in Brussels have “decided to postpone the decision (…) to a later meeting”, announced at the end of the week a spokesman for the representation of Sweden, a state which currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. The ambassadors “will come back to this subject in due course”.
The text aims to reduce CO2 emissions from new cars and vans within the EU to zero, from 2035. An agreement was reached in October between the Member States and negotiators of the European Parliament, then was approved in mid-February by MEPs. The vote announced on Tuesday marked the last phase before the entry into force of the text, but without the support of Germany, obtaining the qualified majority – the vote of at least 55% of the States, representing at least 65% of the population of the EU – was no longer possible. Italy had already opposed the text, as had Poland, and Bulgaria intended to abstain. “A qualified majority would thus be prevented and the gradual abolition of heat engines rejected”said German environmentalist MEP Michael Bloss, quoted by Politico*.
A demanded proposal on e-fuels
To put an end to this blockage, which is rare so close to the vote endorsing the text, the German authorities have declared that they are waiting for a proposal from the European Commission allowing vehicles to run on synthetic fuels, even after 2035. Synthetic fuels are “mixtures of hydrocarbons” created “from resources other than oil”, explains in The Conversation Aurore Richel, professor of chemistry of renewable resources at the University of Liège (Belgium). Among these fuels is e-fuel, which “is based on a sequence of production stages integrating in preliminary the use of carbon dioxide, captured from the atmosphere or from industrial waste and hydrogen (H2) obtained by electrolysis of water”, continues the researcher.
“We have always made it clear that the European Commission must present a proposal on how synthetic fuels could be used in combustion engines after 2035 (…) What is missing now is the fulfillment of this commitment “, deplored Friday, March 3 the German Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing, member of the Liberal Democratic Party (FDP). “The government is united in this expectation of a proposal from the European Commission, aimed at showing how e-fuels can be used after 2035”German Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a press conference on Monday, reports Politico*.
The weight of the German automotive industry
Berlin “expects the European Commission to come up with a plan on how e-fuels can be used for a thermal fleet after 2035. However, from the Commission’s point of view, these fuels will be used for a certain fleet, like fire engines. Large vehicles for very specific purposes”, explains to franceinfo Marie Krpata, researcher at the Committee for the Study of Franco-German Relations (Cerfa), within the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri). The expert stresses, in order to explain Berlin’s position, “the importance of the automotive industry for Germany”.
“Germany is known as the home of the automobile. Some 800,000 jobs are directly linked to the automobile sector. There is also a dynamism, through the automobile, which affects other sectors: chemicals , the textile…”
Marie Krpata, researcher at Ifriat franceinfo
In parallel, “Germany has not taken the turn of the electric vehicle”, continues the specialist. The country “wants to diversify its offer, not only bet on the electric vehicle” which requires less manpower, hence its interest in these e-fuels. This type of fuel is “massively developed by the German Audi group”, noted Aurore Richel in 2019. For Marie Krpata, German car manufacturers “wish to continue to produce thermal vehicles” intended, in particular, for the United States and China after 2035. The production of e-fuels is defended because it would make it possible to prolong the use of heat engines within the European Union after this date. However, it is criticized by NGOs. According to Transport and Environment, a European organization bringing together NGOs in the field of transport and the environment, tests “show that a car running on e-fuel emits levels of NOx (nitrogen oxides) toxic as high as conventional E10 fuel, but also significantly more carbon monoxide and ammonia”.
Behind this deadlock, the political interest of the Liberal Democratic Party
This blocking of Berlin comes first from the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the government coalition with the Social Democrats and the German Greens. Christian Lindner, the German Finance Minister, has indeed declared that his party will reject the new rules, explaining that the“the aim is that new cars with combustion engines can still be registered in Germany after 2035”, using these new fuels, reports Der Spiegel (in German). Already in June, the Liberal Democrat Minister had declared that he considered the ban on the sale of combustion engine cars to be a mistake.
The Liberal Democratic Party, credited with 6% of voting intentions in national polls relayed by Politico*, “is the smallest party in the coalition”, recalls Marie Krpata. The researcher recalls a recent defeat of the FDP, which obtained less than 5% of the votes in elections in Berlin in February. “It’s very complicated for them at the moment,” continues the specialist, with the approach of two next regional elections in Bavaria and Hesse.
“With inflation, Germany has to put money on the table (for households), so the FDP cannot carry out its policy of budgetary orthodoxy. It wants to position itself as a defender of competitiveness, defend the automotive industry and representing the economy.”
Marie Krpataat franceinfo
With this position on the European measure, the FDP reaffirms its position as a representative of business interests. The displayed unity of the government on its position in the face of the text nevertheless hides divisions, because the Greens support this ban on the sale of cars with internal combustion engines. “European diplomats sometimes have the impression of speaking to three interlocutors when they speak to Germany: the SPD, the FDP and the Greens”, point Marie Krpata. At the head of an unprecedented coalition, Olaf Scholz was “forced to make the synthesis between economic interests and climatic ambitions”.
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