People's Party Changes Its Stance

Internal Combustion Engine Ban Is Now Being Pushed Through the Back Door

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen initially made concessions, but now her own European People’s Party is backtracking on the internal combustion engine.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/EPA/Olivier Matthys, stock.adobe.com)

It’s a dangerous back-and-forth at the expense of our economy: First, the EU-wide ban on internal combustion engines starting in 2035 was watered down after massive resistance. Now it’s back on the table. And the whole thing is accompanied by convoluted number-crunching that’s driving European automakers into the abyss compared to China. Krone+ analyzes the misguided path taken by the People’s Party, the Socialists, and the Liberals, who aim to secure a majority in favor of it on Wednesday.

The renowned Fraunhofer Institute recently calculated that around 1.6 million people in Europe are currently employed directly in automobile production. If the EU’s ban on internal combustion engines starting in 2035 and the associated fleet regulations are consistently enforced, up to 726,000 of these jobs (about 45 percent) will be at risk across Europe by 2040 . And of the approximately 250 billion euros in value added across Europe, up to 95 billion euros could be lost. Automotive suppliers, particularly in Germany and Austria, will be especially hard hit. The recent announcements of decline at VWand others are still reverberating.

This past summer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were still talking about softening the ban: Under this proposal, automakers would only have to reduce their fleet emissions by 90 percent—rather than 100 percent—compared to 2021 levels, without the need for additional offset measures. This would have allowed new passenger cars with internal combustion or hybrid engines to continue to be registered and sold even after 2035, as long as the overall average of the manufacturer’s fleet remained within the limit. That is already an almost impossible goal—but now everything has changed again: