France and Spain Call on EU To Uphold 2035 Combustion Engine Ban

France and Spain are calling on the European Union to stick with plans to ban combustion engine cars in the bloc after 2035, at odds with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a meeting of leaders in Brussels this week. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, is currently reviewing rules designed to accelerate the automotive sector’s green transition. Merz has called on the bloc to give up its 2035 deadline to help Germany’s troubled car industry.

France and Spain “hope that the upcoming review will preserve the 2035 cap and the environmental ambition of the CO2 emissions trajectory that underpins it,” a paper presented to climate ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday, and seen by Bloomberg says. “This revision should in no way call into question the zero emissions exhaust target in 2035.”