Poland's Tusk, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Italy's Georgia Meloni, Slovakia's Robert Fico, the Czech Republic's Petr Fiala and Bulgaria's Rosen Zelazkov warned that the ban would harm the competitiveness of the European automotive sector.
In the letter, shared with Polish state news agency PAP, the six prime ministers said that discussions about competitiveness at a recent EU summit, as well as a debate on revising the EU climate regulations, underscored "the necessity to abandon once and for all, the ideological dogmatism, which has brought whole sectors of production to the brink of collapse, with little or negligible effect when it comes to global emissions."
The leaders urged for the European Council to fully adopt the principle of technological neutrality, as "there is no single, magic solution to decarbonisation."
Tusk and the five fellow prime ministers argued that "the imposition of one technology" would harm research, innovation and competition, especially in the EU automotive sector which is "suffering dramatically" from EU regulations.
The six EU leaders called for the bloc to maintain, beyond the year 2035, the same role for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), fuel cell technology, electric cars with the so-called range extenders, as well as other future solutions.
These proposals refer to the upcoming revision of the EU's CO2 emissions directive for new passenger and transport vehicles.
According to the six prime ministers, the revision should take into account the role of low emission and renewable fuels in the decarbonisation of road transport, and include biofuels among "CO2 emission-neutral fuels."
The six prime ministers also called for a revision to the EU's CO2 emissions directive for heavy vehicles, so that carmakers can "meet targets and avoid risking fines."
In addition, the letter criticised the EU's Clean Industrial Deal when it comes to road transport.
The six leaders called on the European Commission to maintain technological neutrality in the transition to low and zero-emission mobility.
They added that that the EU must effectively strive to meet its climate targets, "without destroying" competitiveness.
"There's nothing green on an industrial desert," the six prime ministers said in their letter.
(pm/gs)
Source PAP, Bloomberg