European governments are inclined to reduce the requirements that the Euro 7 regulations will impose on passenger cars, vans and trucks registered in the European Union until 2035, that is, in the period prior to the entry into force of the ban on diesel engines. combustion. Today, Monday, the Council of European Competitiveness Ministers reached an agreement on the compromise text proposed by the Spanish presidency to try to bring closer positions between the defenders and detractors of the measure by softening the demands for reducing CO2 emissions and delaying its entry. in force. The text must now be negotiated with the European Parliament.
The agreement agreed upon by the European Ministers of Industry and Commerce proposes “realistic levels” of emissions while “helping” the European industry to make “the definitive leap towards clean cars in 2035,” states in a press release the acting president of the EU Competitiveness Council, the acting Spanish Minister of Industry, Héctor Gómez. “The Spanish presidency has been sensitive to the different demands and requests of the member states, and we believe that with this proposal we have achieved broad support and a balance between the investment costs of manufacturers, and we have improved the derived environmental benefits.”
France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, in line with the position of the European automobile industry, which rejects the changes, had formed a blocking minority sufficient to reject the proposal presented by the Commission in October last year to review the Euro 6 and Euro VI standards. Germany has a unique position: it finds Brussels’ proposal unambitious but insists that to reach zero emissions, synthetic fuels must be used, as its industry demands.
The Spanish presidency set out to achieve the agreement during this semester and today it has achieved sufficient support to carry out a text that, it maintains, proposes “pragmatic” changes with respect to the original proposal. For the NGO Transport
The text agreed upon by the Council maintains the CO2 and nitrogen dioxide limits for private cars and vans unchanged with respect to the standards already in force, and lowers the requirements for trucks. In addition, it accepts that cars can travel 2,500 kilometers exceeding emissions limits without the engine blocking. It also gives more time for the entry into force of the new limits for reducing particles from tires (4 years in the case of new passenger car models), a threshold that governments justify because it is in line with the standards set by the United Nations. United. The new regulation was to come into force in 2025 but the governments want to postpone it until 2027 for light vehicles and until 2029 for heavy vehicles.
