Once again Europe shows itself to be a club where each member country thinks only of its own interests. To bring home a result, governments break alliances built on common interests. This is the case of the stoppage of the production of thermal engines foreseen by Brussels in 2035.
The alarms about jobs at risk in the industrial chain created an axis between Berlin and Rome, in favor of an exemption for fuels produced in the laboratory, the so-called e-fuels, which would have allowed the survival of traditional machines beyond the current scenario. A commitment that remained until yesterday. But that vanished into thin air, at least judging by the comedy staged in Brussels.
The first blow blocking any change of plans in the decisions taken came from the President of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola who, speaking after her speech at the EU summit, said: «We cannot go back on the agreements, because in the final analysis it is a a matter of trust between the co-legislators and the credibility of the legislative process”. “If our citizens ask us to legislate in a specific area – warned the President of the European Parliament – to take decisions in a specific area, we must be prepared to do so. And once that’s done, we have to keep our commitments.”
Not only. “With regard to the trialogue (between the Commission, the Council and Parliament), this is the result or the culmination of years of negotiations – underlined Metsola – from the moment you begin to think about a proposal from the Commission until when it reaches the table of the co-legislators after many negotiations to find a solution”. So no change in line decided. Even if in reality there are always some EU countries that are more equal than others. In this case, Germany, which is finalizing an exemption for e-fuels from the shutdown for internal combustion engines. These are chemically processed synthetic fuels that do not produce emissions even during production.
And so they could be admitted into an eventual coexistence with the only electricity glimpsed on the European horizon. The same does not happen with the Italian proposal centered on the use of biofuels obtained from the use of agricultural materials not intended for human consumption. Thus preserving the sustainability of the agricultural system and supporting a sector in which Italy has considerable know-how. A choice that would both increase the production chain that produces the raw materials and maintain a considerable part of the plants producing endothermic engines that could run on non-fossil fuels in the long term.
Well, while for Germany the green light for your request is almost obvious, for our country there is no escape. ‘The Commission is negotiating with Germany, which has asked for further clarification of the content of the recital on synthetic fuels. Other topics, such as biofuels, are not included in the recital» clarified the executive vice-president of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, closing the door to all negotiations. Meloni and the Italian government are not in agreement. With no derogation for biofuels, he will maintain his vote against stopping engine heating from 2035 onwards. Negotiations will not stop.
Source: IL Tempo
Roy Brown is a renowned economist and author at The Nation View. He has a deep understanding of the global economy and its intricacies. He writes about a wide range of economic topics, including monetary policy, fiscal policy, international trade, and labor markets.
