de | en |    Pressemitteilungen21.11.2008

CO2 car emissions: Europe's major car-making nations agree on soft-touch fines

Today it emerged that Germany, France the UK and Italy came to an agreement on a position favouring soft-touch fines for car makers that do not meet agreed CO2 targets. German Green MEP Rebecca Harms commented:

"With this agreement the four major car-making nations of Europe have once again shown their lack of ambition to reduce CO2 emissions.

"Germany, France, the UK and Italy want a fine cap of 15 euro per gram for new cars that emit up to three grams over the limit. That would make it cheaper and easier for automakers to simply pay up the fines rather than invest in the technological improvements to meet the targets. The fines would be more like a tax and the intended reduction to 130g of CO2 per km would go out of the window. 

"The European Parliament demanded fines of 95 euro per gram with good reason: it was the bare minimum to make them meaningful. The European parliament must not accept this political horse-trading. It must stand its ground and demand meaningful fines in its trialogue negotiations."