The Council of the EU on Tuesday adopted a regulation setting stricter carbon dioxide (CO2) emission performance standards for new cars and vans.
The new regulation sets a target of 100 percent CO2 emission reductions for both new cars and vans from 2035, according to officials.
Poland's Climate and Environment Minister Anna Moskwa said her country opposed the new rules, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Moskwa, who represented Poland at Tuesday’s meeting in Brussels, said in a tweet: “Poland voted against a ban on the registration of new combustion-engine cars after 2035.”
She added: “Non-transparent and informal discussions during which Germany pushes policies favourable mainly to its own market show that this has nothing to do with just transition.”
Moskwa also said that “the choice of technology for the coming decades should be decided by the market and societies, instead of being dictated by the EU.”
She later told reporters: “We couldn’t vote in favour of this regulation because its impact on our economy, society and the transport sector hasn’t been sufficiently analysed."
Moskwa added: "We believe the market is not ready for this. Such a ban is detrimental to economies, societies, and to EU transport as a whole.”
She told reporters that, under the new regulation, the European Commission would in 2026 review the ban on the registration of new petrol and diesel cars.
Moskwa commented: “I am confident that by that time, EU officials will realise the absurdity of this decision and the plans in this respect will be verified.”
EU adopts stricter CO2 emission performance standards for new cars and vans
The new regulation sets a 55-percent CO2 emissions reduction target for new cars and 50 percent for new vans from 2030 to 2034, compared to 2021 levels; followed by a 100-percent CO2 emissions cut for both new cars and vans from 2035, the PAP news agency reported.
The regulation effectively means a ban on the registration of new combustion-engine cars from 2035, according to news outlets.
In recent weeks, it had been unclear whether the Council of the EU would adopt the new rules, after Germany came out against them, demanding an exemption for so-called e-fuels.
At the weekend, Berlin and Brussels struck an agreement as a result of which the European Commission committed to making, “following a consultation with stakeholders,” a proposal “for registering vehicles running exclusively on CO2-neutral fuels, after 2035, in conformity with EU law, outside the scope of the fleet standards, and in conformity with the EU’s climate neutrality objective.”
After this provision was included in the proposed regulation, Germany backed the new rules, and its opponents no longer had “a blocking minority,” public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Poland cast the only vote against the new regulation on Tuesday, with Romania, Bulgaria and Italy abstaining, according to IAR.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, consilium.europa.eu
