The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, burdened by corruption scandals and because of the legal siege against members of his party and even against his family, he tried to take refuge in Europe to try to get the Commission to echo his words. … proposals. But here too, it was not a success.
On Friday of last week, on the eve of the Commission’s decision to postpone the end of the combustion engine, as requested by the European automobile industry, including the Spanish one, Pedro Sánchez sent a letter to Ursula Von der Leyen asking her to maintain the year 2035 as the limit for the manufacture of combustion vehicles. The Spanish president defended “the importance of preserving the current level of ambitionespecially since the market already identifies electrified vehicles as the most efficient and competitive option. He reminded the Commission President that Brussels had already introduced measures to ease the impact on manufacturers and assured that this was enough.
The letter had little effect, since ultimately the Commission, of which Teresa Ribera, former minister and former vice-president of the Spanish government, is a member, decided to lower the requirements and that within 10 years manufacturers would reduce their emissions by 90% instead of 100% as had been initially decided. This means that they will be able to continue to market hybrid vehicles and vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines with certain characteristics and which use alternative fuels in their operation and “green” steel made in Europe in their manufacturing. So, car manufacturers will be able to continue selling from 2035 plug-in hybrids (PHEV), extended range vehicles, mild hybrids and vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines. Except, logically, fully electric vehicles (EV) and hydrogen.
Strong reduction in emissions
Car manufacturers will be able to maintain up to 10% residual emissions in 2035. This is not a return to the current model, but rather a more flexible transition, based on what is called technological neutrality, that is to say that emissions are reduced regardless of the engine used.
It doesn’t seem crazy that the European government listened to its auto industry and relaxed its demands. Maybe Pedro Sánchez should also listen to Spanish industry. I do not believe that Europe should follow in the footsteps of the United States and abandon its essence and commitment to the transition to a green economy. But you can’t do this by harming your industry and making it less competitive. In fact, I don’t know what will happen in ten years, but today, at least in Spain, we are not ready to assume a fleet of mainly electric vehiclesnor do we know the result it will give. It’s very ecological, but what do we do with the batteries? Don’t they pollute? And how do we produce the electricity we need? Not everything is so clear that other types of engines should be completely abandoned. And the same thing happened in housing. In the EU, there are concerns about the price of housing and the difficulties young people face in accessing it. And that is why they have proposed measures to solve this problem, but they do not commit to limiting income or preventing the purchase of housing for investment, as the Spanish president defends.
There are still procedures, like that of the European Parliament, where Pedro Sánchez can convince the socialists to vote against relaxing the deadlines for the combustion engine, even if the people and the far right vote together and move the project forward. In almost everything, and so far this week, our president returned from Brussels with a double setback.
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