abandoning internal combustion engines from 2035 is a mistake that must be corrected

Chairman of the European People’s Party (ETP) Manfred Weber has warned that European countries are losing out on future markets. “The latest economic indicators are a loud alarm for Germany: economic growth and prosperity are things that should be talked about,” the Christian Democratic Union (CSU) politician told the Funke Mediengruppe.

“We Europeans are massively losing competitiveness in future markets, especially in markets that have brought us prosperity until now”.

A quarter of all electric cars sold in the EU this year are expected to be manufactured in China.

According to Weber: “We have to protect the European economy.” China is systematically trying to capture markets for new technologies of the future using dumping methods, as it has already done with solar panels. “We must not allow this,” said the head of the ETP group in the European Parliament. “Free trade with China must also be fair.”

He called Europe’s decision to no longer register new cars that emit CO2 from 2035 a gross mistake of industrial policy from which China benefits. The leader of the European People’s Party (ETP) group expressed his commitment to “correct” this decision “after the European Parliament elections”.

The “Green Deal” – a set of European initiatives for the ecological reorganization of the economy and society – must not become a “China deal”, Weber warned. “We need to focus on European jobs, not Chinese jobs.”

A few weeks ago, the CDU and CSU also adopted a program for the European Parliament elections, calling for the ban on internal combustion engines to be abandoned: “We want to lift the ban on internal combustion engines and preserve Germany’s advanced internal combustion engine technology and develop it further in a technologically neutral way,” the party alliance program says. However, such a position is currently not found in the program of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP).