The flexibility on car fines for 3 years

Brussels (ANSA) – Strasbourg says yes to the revision of the regulation on CO2 emissions from cars and vans to grant more flexibility to manufacturers in meeting emission targets, avoiding the imposition of fines on those who do not comply. With 458 votes in favor, 101 against, and 4 abstentions, the Chamber supported the targeted amendment proposed by the European Commission at the beginning of April to allow car manufacturers to calculate compliance with the limits based on a three-year average (2025-2027), rather than on an annual basis.

Thus helping manufacturers to meet the cap of 93.6 grams of CO2 per kilometer, set at the fleet level, by offsetting any shortfalls in one or two years with better performance in others. An anti-fine amendment – the core of the ad hoc plan for the automotive sector presented in March – had been developed by Ursula von der Leyen‘s team to relieve the sector from a hit estimated at around 16 billion euros.

In Strasbourg, there was a large majority that secured the flexibility intervention, the result of intense lobbying by capital and car manufacturers on the Berlaymont Palace. However, this intervention has divided the majority and opposition in Rome. To complete the legislative process, the final, now formal, approval from the Twenty-Seven is awaited in the coming days. But in Brussels, the battle to soften the rules on the automotive sector has just begun.

By the end of the year, the Commission will open the site for a broader revision of the regulation that will not touch the ban on thermal engines from 2035 but will allow the principle of ‘technological neutrality’ for fuels, dear to Italy, to be enshrined in black and white. Thus paving the way for new or other technologies for the post-2035 market, when internal combustion engines, diesel, and gasoline will no longer be sold.

A window of opportunity to obtain even greater flexibility that will not only ensure a future in the market for e-fuels – as requested by Berlin – but that for Italy could mean reopening the issue of biofuels (May 8).