Agreement on fleet limits: Berlin and Paris apparently want to further weaken the ban on combustion engines

The partial move away from combustion engines is an important goal of the CDU/CSU at the European level. The federal government is now said to have agreed with France on a regulation on fleet limits, which should make the sale of combustion engines possible for longer.

According to diplomats, Germany and France have tentatively agreed on a common position that provides for a further relaxation of the ban on combustion engines by 2035. The AFP news agency learned this from diplomatic circles. A spokesman for the federal government said that the agreement is on the home stretch and that final approval from Germany is still pending. The two countries would thus resolve a dispute that threatened to block two legislative processes in Brussels.

The move away from combustion engines was the federal government's main demand. It's about the so-called fleet limits, with which the EU determines how much carbon dioxide a manufacturer's new cars can emit on average per year. According to the current status, they will fall to zero in 2035. The EU Commission has already proposed not reducing the limit values ​​to zero, but only by 90 percent compared to 2021. The remaining emissions should be offset elsewhere.

The implementation of the German-French agreement would lead to more combustion engines being sold after 2035. Manufacturers would have to further reduce their CO2 emissions by 90 percent by 2035, but unlike the Commission proposal, they would not have to offset the remaining ten percent. Paris also approved additional flexibility for hybrid vehicles in 2035, as Berlin had called for to protect the German car industry.

Parliament has a say

In return, Berlin approved a stricter view of the “made in Europe” principle. Companies in sectors considered strategic will be obliged to supply themselves with components manufactured in the EU or certain partner countries if they receive public money. Germany had long advocated for “made in Europe” to include a significantly larger number of partner countries.

The agreement between the EU's two largest economies should now enable Brussels to make progress on both laws. The 27 member states could agree on a position by December. This is followed by negotiations with the European Parliament, where the opinions between the groups are also still far apart.