Germany to challenge EU ban on combustion engines: Merz
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has stepped up pressure on the European Commission to rethink its policy of banning internal combustion engines altogether.
“We will not continue to comply with this stubborn and misguided internal combustion engine ban in the European Union,” Merz said at the Christian Democrats’ (CDU) regional party conference in Magdeburg.
“We must remain a strong industrial area.”
From today’s perspective, electric mobility is still the “mainstream,” Merz said.
However, he added that there will be other drive technologies, such as hybrid drives or drives, that people may not yet be familiar with.
“We in politics do not know today what technology will be possible tomorrow.”
According to the chancellor, politically motivated bans should not cause disruptions.
The European Union decided in 2022 that new cars will not be allowed to emit carbon dioxide from 2035, in a bid to meet the bloc’s climate targets.
The measure amounted to a ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles and highlighted the EU’s efforts to move away from fossil fuels.
But after serious criticism from carmakers and some EU countries, the bloc announced plans to review the ban earlier this year.
Germany’s ruling coalition partners the CDU, its Bavarian sister party the CSU and the Social Democrats are pushing for a softening of the EU’s decision to phase out internal combustion engines.
Merz wrote a letter to this effect to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The regulation aims to further reduce CO2 emissions in transportation.
But as electric cars are not being adopted quickly enough, pressure is mounting to reverse the decision.
In his speech at the party conference, Merz said that climate change is “a very serious problem that no one should discuss” and that it now affects many companies as well as agriculture and forestry.
This requires every possible measure to help reduce CO2 emissions – “But not with bans, not with regulations, not with dying industries, but with cutting-edge technology,” the Chancellor said.
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