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what it means for Italy and for biofuels – breaking latest news

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what it means for Italy and for biofuels – breaking latest news

From our correspondent
BRUSSELS – The announcement came via Twitter from EU Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans, who is in charge of the Green Deal, on Saturday morning: «We have found an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars”, i.e. on synthetic fuels, which should not be confused with biofuels, on which the Italian government had concentrated its battle in recent days because our country is ahead in this technology. “We will work now to obtain the adoption of the CO2 standards for the car regulation as soon as possible – he continues – and the Commission will quickly follow up on the legal measures necessary to implement Recital 11”. The last obstacle to the approval of the new regulation on CO2 emissions from vehicles has been removed, which effectively prohibits from 2035 the sale of new cars and vans with internal combustion engines, fueled by petrol or diesel.

The Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin he declared that «Italy is currently committed to providing all the useful elements to make the EU understand, in a scientifically and rationally impeccable way, the importance of including biofuels among green fuels. We hope that Europe does not prove unreasonable and deaf”. And the Minister of Transport Matthew Salvini he said that “the government is determined to continue along the path of common sense” and that “in order not to just give China an enormous gift, Europe must also open up to biofuels”. For Angelo Bonelli, deputy of Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra “Italy is dramatically defeated”. On 21 March Pichetto Fratin, Salvini and the Minister of Industry Adolfo Urso had written to Timmermans explaining Italy’s position on biofuels. But the Commission has never considered extending the regulation to biofuels because this would have entailed the reopening of the text resulting from an agreement already closed and voted on by the EU Parliament. And in fact the regulation will remain unchangedeven after the agreement with Berlin. German Transport Minister Volker Wissing explained that concrete procedural steps have been agreed and that a specific timetable has been made binding: “We want the process to be completed by autumn 2024,” he added.

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Timing: March 28 the regulation

Barring twists and turns, the Energy Council should adopt the regulation on Tuesday 28 March

: the Swedish presidency, which is leading the EU this semester, put it on the agenda at the meeting of ambassadors to the EU (Coreper 1) on Monday in view of the go-ahead from ministers the following day. The already announced negative vote of Italy and Poland and the abstention of Bulgaria (it counts as a “no”) are not enough to form a blocking minority, which includes at least four countries representing 35% of the EU population. With the publication in the Official Gazette, the regulation will enter into force. The Commission has agreed with the German authorities on a statement it will publish after Tuesday’s Council vote and which will illustrate the next steps that the Community executive intends to take on some of the implementing measures. The declaration will first be discussed with member states’ ambassadors to the EU.

The process of the agreement

The European Parliament had already voted in favor in the plenary of 14 February. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had already made it clear that an agreement was in the air in the press conference at the end of the Eurosummit on Friday 24 March: “We will find an agreement,” he said. And so it was. The agreement between Berlin and the European Commission provides that it will still be possible to sell new cars with combustion engines powered exclusively by synthetic fuels even after the entry into force of the legislation requiring the sale of new cars only with zero CO2 emissions from 2035 , so no more petrol or diesel, opening the door to the electric car.

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E-fuel and biofuels: the differences

Synthetic fuels should not be confused with biofuels

(read more here)on which the Italian government had concentrated its battle in recent days because our country is ahead in this technology. But while e-fuels are already present in the regulation in “recital 11”, biofuels are not mentioned. The Commission has always been very clear that it would not touch the text of the regulation because the agreement between the EU institutions had already been reached and could not be questioned.

The negotiations

Berlin took advantage of the window opened by Rome with the announcement of its “no” why Germany has thus become the tip of the balance in the vote in the Council (last step in the process for adopting a legislative text). The German Minister of Transport Volker Wissing, of the liberale party in crisis of consensus in Germany, seized the opportunity by expressing his doubts and asking for clarifications on the text in the e-fuels part in order to preserve the production of the German motor industry burning beyond that deadline. Several leaders at the European Council, particularly among the more environmentally ambitious Nordic countries, criticized Germany’s move. It also lasts the president of the EU Parliament Roberta Metsola: “We cannot go back on the agreements, because in the final analysis it is a matter of trust between co-legislators and the credibility of the legislative process”. Now the agreement has arrived that does not affect the already closed regulation.

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