Europe on track for the end of combustion engines 2035 onwards

Yesterday in Brussels, the hearings of the Commissioners appointed by the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen, began to define the new executive. Among the MEPs who attended the hearings was Apostolos Tzitzikostas, the new transport commissioner, who presented his action plan.

Mr Tzitzikostas told the Transport Committee that he intended to make no mistake when it came to phasing out combustion engines by 2035. However, he agreed with Ursula Von Der Leyen and wanted to include synthetic fuels in the next review in 2026.

Tzitzikostas has received a positive opinion, but the official evaluations of the hearings will be announced on 21 November, when the Conference of Presidents declares the hearings closed.

We must "stick to the plan

Mr Tzitzikostas belongs to the conservatives who, at European level, are organised within the European People's Party (EPP), of which Ms Von Der Leyen is also a member.

"We have specific rules and objectives that we want... and we have to stick to the plan, otherwise the message that the EU will send... is not a message of stability or confidence," said Mr Tzitzikostas today.

The "Green Deal", which includes, among other things, the "phasing out of combustion engines", therefore seems destined to come to fruition, and the Commissioner-designate for Transport does not seem to want to relax the CO2 targets for 2025.

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Electric cars remain the priority

Mr Tzitzikostas' plan is still unclear, and Europe is in the throes of the biggest automotive crisis in history, with factories on the brink of closure and thousands of redundancies in sight. In his rather vague speech, the Commissioner nevertheless promised to support manufacturers.

"I can't say whether it will be through incentives or taxes, but I can't rule out legislative action", he said, referring to the need to electrify company fleets, which in Europe account for around half of all new registrations.

Italy and Croatia together

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Today in Rome, at the Palazzo Piacentini, the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, received the Croatian Minister for the Economy, Ante Šušnjar, to ensure his support for the Italian non-paper on the automobile, which proposes bringing forward to the beginning of 2025 the activation of the review clause of the European regulation on CO2 emissions from light vehicles.

The document, signed by countries that share Italy's position, also raises a number of fundamental issues, including the need to invest common resources in the sector in order to regain global competitiveness, in a context of true technological neutrality and with the aim of strategic autonomy in green technologies. This is very important for us, and it is also very important for Europe", said Mr Urso.

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