BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s transport ministry is softening its stance in a conflict between Berlin and Brussels over a phase-out of combustion engines, presenting a compromise proposal to the EU Commission via email, the Spiegel news website said on Friday.
It said it had obtained Thursday’s email, in which Transport Minister Volker Wissing backed away from his demand for planned fleet limits to be renegotiated to allow cars with internal combustion engines to still be registered after 2035.
Wissing now demands that the European Commission “in the course of adoption” of the new CO2 limits make another assurance that it will continue to allow the registration of cars powered exclusively by the so-called e-fuels after 2035.
Germany’s transport ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Although not on the official agenda, the topic of e-fuels may be discussed at an EU summit in Brussels on Friday.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
