The Union comes to terms with Berlin on e-fuels
“We have reached an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuel”synthetic fuels for cars. The European Commissioner for the Environment announced it via Twitter Frans Timmermans. “We will work now to get CO2 standards adopted for car regulation as soon as possible.” There is the German derogation for heat engines beyond 2035 with yes to synthetic fuels, but without taking biofuels into consideration, as proposed by the government of Giorgia Meloni.
The announcement was not welcomed in Rome
“The agreement between Germany and the EU on the use of synthetic fuels, with the exclusion of biofuels, is simply intolerable” he declared the deputy and head of the Energy Department of Forza Italia Luca Squeri .
“It is an agreement destined to damage not only Italy but all of Europe. The government continues the sacrosanct battle for technological neutrality, because we risk paying dearly for the crazy environmentalism of the European left,” he added.
The game is not over and the Italian executive is ready to give battle
“The government is determined to continue along the path of common sense: to protect jobs, the environment and production activities and not just to give China a huge gift, Europe must also open up to biofuels” he said in a statement The Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Matteo Salvini.
“Timmermans’ ecological transition will have enormous economic costs for families and businesses and political costs in terms of strategic dependence on China” declared the head of the delegation of Fratelli d’Italia-Ecr to the European Parliament, Carlo Fidanza. “The new targets for reducing CO2 emissions are unrealistic and achieving them will have a devastating social impact,” he added.
In his view, at this point, “it is necessary to strenuously defend the principle of technological neutrality, on the basis of which it must be possible to reduce polluting emissions also with biofuels which, considering their life cycle, are more sustainable than electricity” he highlighted.
“We take note of the agreement between the Commission and the German government on e-fuels. Following the same principle, the Meloni government is more than right not to give up on this point, which is obviously consistent with the Italian national interest but also with a realistic and non-ideological scientific approach,” he concluded.