How the car industry split the European Parliament

With the automotive sector pushing back hard against CO2 emission reduction targets imposed by the EU and seeking to postpone deadlines, European lawmakers are split on the issue, as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen prepares for fresh dialogue with carmakers on 12 September.

A letter sent jointly by the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA) and European Association of Automotive Suppliers (CLEPA) at the end of August warned that car and van CO2 targets for 2030 and 2035 are “simply no longer feasible”.

Since transport accounts for 25% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, the Commission aims for a 90% reduction by 2050 in order to achieve the goal of climate neutrality, which is the foundation of the Green Deal, the EU's big plan to achieve climate neutrality by mid-century.

This translates into strict rules for new cars placed on the EU market. A regulation approved in 2019 set progressive emission limits that each car manufacturer must comply with for their entire fleet—that is, all the vehicles they sell in EU countries. In this way, manufacturers are encouraged to produce fewer polluting models.

Although “adjustments” are allowed based on the number of zero-emission cars sold, manufacturers exceeding CO2 rules must pay penalties for every extra gram of carbon emission.

The Commission has given automakers more time to meet CO2 emission reduction targets set for 2025, but its stuck firm its target for 2035, when only zero-emission car models should be sold in the EU market.

But the sector is pushing back, seeking more allowance for hybrid vehicles and highly efficient internal-combustion engine vehicles, which do produce a certain amount of CO2 emissions.

Right-wing lawmakers side with the automotive industry

The CO2 emission targets divide the EU Parliament's between right and left political groups, in a crucial debate that involving the future of more than 13 million autoworkers.

“We agree with the car industry, because this target is more and more unreachable in the medium-long term,” Italian MEP Salvatore De Meo, from the European People’s Party, told Euronews. “Since the first moment, the EPP is pushing for the sustainability goals to respect also the social and economic aspects.”

De Meo considers the EU policy on emissions to be “ideological” and calls for more “pragmatism” in the Commission's choices. “I believe that [changing the targets] means giving the possibility to those companies that perhaps have greater difficulty in adapting to do so in a different timeframe,” he said.

His political group, the largest in the European Parliament, presented a five-point plan to boost competitiveness in the automotive sector in December 2024, calling among other things for a simplified regulatory framework.

The EPP’s position is shared by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), and Patriots for Europe (PfE) groups, which are usually very critical of all the Green Deal measures.

These groups have traditionally opposed what they describe as excessive regulation and Europe's focus on electric cars. “We cannot imagine an exclusively electric future for the automotive industry. We should consider alternative solutions such as biofuels,” De Meo said, challenging the EU regulation that will ban the selling of any vehicle producing CO2 emissions (including biofuels) from 2035. 

“I hope that the institutions acknowledge what is a concern raised by the automotive sector,” De Meo said of the Strategic Dialogue, whose structure foresees regular meetings with representatives of car manufacturers, suppliers, social partners, and other stakeholders, in order to develop detailed proposals to ensure the “competitiveness, sustainability, and long-term resilience” of the European automotive industry.

A pushback from the left side of the Parliament

On the other side of the hemicycle, Socialists and Democrats, Greens-European Free Alliance and The Left dismiss the automakers’ calls to change the targets. “I completely disagree,” Belgian MEP Sara Matthieu told Euronews, claiming that doing this would mean “rewarding the laggards and punishing those that have actually invested in the future”, and would also be “a very bad signal” for the entire Green Deal.

Green Deal supporters underline the importance of keeping strict limits on car emissions in order to fit with the overall decarbonisation roadmap. This is crucial, in their opinion, also in light of alarming data on global warming: 2024 was the first year in which the average temperature exceeded pre-industrial levels by more than 1.5 degrees, the threshold set in the Paris Agreement on climate.

Like many of her colleagues, the Belgian MEP acknowledges the challenges ahead for the automotive industry, but she puts forward different solutions to save the car industry without weakening climate targets.

“Some of my colleagues think that [changing the targets] is going to save the car industry. I think that it's really the other way around. If you want to make sure that we keep our industry alive, [zero-emissions cars] is where you need to invest.”

“The greening of corporate fleets, for instance, is helping to create the demand that you need and also a second-hand market.” She also calls for more investment in charging infrastructure for electric cars, to make sure it's available all over Europe, and is easy and affordable for consumers to use.

Moving the batteries’ production chain to Europe and screening foreign (Chinese) investments in the EU countries would help to “protect our markets from the flooding of Chinese cars”, she says.

Matthieu also notes that certain European car brands “were more future-oriented, have innovated, and have made the right choice.” Moving ahead the deadline for the end of combustion engine car sales, she thinks, would give the European market to the Chinese on a silver platter, which is something that neither right-wing nor left-wing EU lawmakers want.