Since the beginning of June, Volker Wissing has been waiting for a response to his letter to Frans Timmermans. In the letter, the Federal Minister of Transport once again insisted on a concrete proposal as to how e-fuels-only internal combustion engines can still be approved after 2035. He has not yet received an answer, as can be seen from the German government’s response to a question from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
Now Timmermans is no longer there and the Slovakian Maroš Šefčovič is taking over the Green Deal tasks. Wissing can possibly expect more commitment from Šefčovič on this issue, as Timmermans is considered a strict opponent of e-fuels in passenger cars. Nevertheless, it will probably be November before the Commission makes its proposal. This may be due to disputes between the directorates general involved, as we write in our Analysis.
On Monday, Wissing is also hosting the German government’s e-fuels conference in Munich. Government representatives from the G20, EU Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean, and industry representatives and scientists want to discuss the market ramp-up of e-fuels and sign a joint declaration of intent.
It is the first international forum to start a dialogue on e-fuels beyond EU borders. E-fuel advocates hope for better market conditions and a concerted framework. Environmentalists caution against the limited availability of the (still) expensive fuel and call for clear prioritization in distribution. Next week, both sides will meet several times in Munich, as the IAA motor show also starts on Tuesday.
We hope you have a relaxing and wonderful weekend!
The Commission still needs time to regulate synthetic fuels in new cars and vans. According to information from Table.Media, its proposal on how new vehicles with synthetic fuels (e-fuels) can be registered beyond the ban on internal combustion engines from 2035 will come in November at the earliest.
The Commission had announced the proposal for approval regulations for vehicles that can run exclusively on e-fuels to the German Ministry of Transport for the summer. The legislative proposal is to be presented to the member states in the Technical Committee Motor Vehicles (TCMV). According to reports in Brussels, the proposal will be presented at the TCMV meeting in November at the earliest. For the proposal to enter into force, it will then require the approval of a qualified majority of the member states.
A spokesman for the Commission told Table.Media: “The Commission plans to consult member states in the coming weeks with a view to the vote that will take place later this year.” He added that the regulation would then be submitted to Parliament and Council for consideration.
Minister Volker Wissing is putting on the pressure. A ministry spokesman explained: “We expect the European Commission to fulfill its promise and promptly submit a proposal for the introduction of approval regulations for ‘e-fuels-only’ vehicles as a first step.” The ministry is counting on this happening before the next meeting of the relevant technical committee in Brussels at the beginning of October.
The reason for the delay could be a dissension between the involved Directorates General of the Commission. According to information from Table.Media, DG Clima had vetoed the legislative proposal from DG Grow. DG Grow (Industry and Internal Market) is in charge of e-fuels. It is responsible because the opening clause for e-fuels-only vehicles is to be inserted into the existing type approval legislation (Euro 6). And DG Grow is responsible for type approval.
In the internal Commission vote of July 19, DG Clima has taken a negative position. It has made several reservations. The most serious is the objection concerning the definition of e-fuels, which can be used by new vehicles even after the entry into force of the combustion ban. In the legislative proposal, DG Grow had adopted the Commission’s 2021 definition of “low-carbon fuels”. Here, a reduction in CO2 emissions of at least 70 percent must be guaranteed.
DG Clima calls for this value to be 100 percent. The text says: “With the proposed definition, there is a risk that the market introduction of vehicles that run exclusively on CO2-neutral fuels after 2035 will hinder the achievement of our climate targets.” This would set a precedent for considering “carbon-neutral” technologies that reduced emissions by only 70 percent compared to fossil fuels.
E-fuel manufacturers, on the other hand, point out that the required value of 100 percent is possible during operation, but not when considering the life cycle of the fuels.
It is possible, however, that DG Clima’s attitude toward e-fuels may still change. In the meantime, Frans Timmermans, the Vice-President responsible for the Green Deal, has left the Commission. Timmermans declared his vehement opposition to the use of e-fuels in cars and vans. He saw e-fuels as a threat to the industry’s transformation to electric cars. Following Timmermans’ departure, Slovak Social Democrat Maroš Šefčovič is Vice President in charge of the Green Deal.
He is oriented to the cause and has proven that he has sympathies for the industry. The Dutch Christian Democrat Wopke Hoekstra is also to become the new Climate Commissioner. He would then also be responsible for DG Clima and could exert a moderating influence. However, it is said in Brussels that Hoekstra will take over from Timmermans’ cabinet chief Diederik Samsom. Samsom was an NGO activist for Greenpeace, party leader of the Social Democrats in the Netherlands and was seen as the driving force behind Timmermans’ proposals to ban the use of internal combustion engines in cars and light commercial vehicles.
Jens Gieseke (CDU), a member of the Environment Committee, says: “Wissing let Timmermans pull him over the coals in the spring. On e-fuels, there were only promises and no firm commitments.” Now, he says, it shows that the Commission is divided and cannot present a proposal. “Wissing is still empty-handed. He should now put pressure on EU Commissioner Šefčovič to finally deliver results.” With Lukas Scheid
Reform of the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was seen as the centerpiece of the Fit for 55 package. It is intended to achieve a large part of the CO₂ reduction of 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. This is to be achieved firstly through higher CO₂ prices, by reducing the quantity of emission allowances on the market more quickly than before. In 2024, 90 million certificates will be lost, and in 2026 another 27 million – in addition to the quantities that are already disappearing each year. This means that 130 million fewer emission allowances will flow onto the market next year than in previous years.
Currently, the European CO2 price is around €85 per ton of CO2. At the start of next year, the CO2 price will therefore rise as a result of the market shortage, with experts predicting an average price for 2024 of around €100 per ton of CO2 – some forecasts even anticipate prices of well over €100. This will affect the energy industry as well as emissions-intensive industries (oil refineries as well as steel, iron, aluminum, cement, paper and glass producers).
What this means for the development of prices for end products is difficult to predict. On the one hand, because the actual costs resulting from the higher CO2 prices depend on the emissions intensity of the technology used and vary from plant to plant. On the other hand, companies have already been trading emission rights for many years and usually still have more favorable certificates at their disposal. The price increase therefore does not have an immediate effect, but rather takes place over much longer periods of time. Nevertheless, it is clear that the price increase curve will steepen in the coming years as a result of the more drastic shortages.
The long-disputed second emissions trading scheme for buildings and transport will not come into effect until 2027. In Germany, it will have little impact on prices, as Germany already charges a CO2 price in these very sectors. The EU’s ETS 2 is capped at €45 by a price stability mechanism. The German CO2 price on fuels at this time will be up to €65.
The situation is different for shipping. The maritime sector will fall under the ETS for the first time in 2024. Not only CO2 but also methane and ammonia emissions will be taken into account. Initially, only 40 percent of emissions will be covered, from 2025 already 70 percent, from 2026 then 100 percent. This means that shipping companies will also have to purchase certificates for their emissions. Up to 120 million metric tons of CO2 are to be prevented in this way by 2030, as part of the proceeds will flow back into the sector and contribute to the decarbonization of shipping.
However, there is currently still a loophole for shipping companies, which needs to be closed by regulation. A study by a World Bank transport expert suggests that shipping companies could instead shift their transport activities to ports close to the EU, where the ETS does not apply. Thus, more emissions would be caused by bypasses and revenues for EU countries would be prevented.
Theoretically, air traffic has been part of the ETS since 2012, but airlines were provided with free emission rights so as not to jeopardize international competition. For intra-European flights, this will come to an end from 2026, which should then also make flights within the EU more expensive.
The CO2 fleet limits almost shook up the coalition in Berlin. However, their regulatory impact will not take effect until 2030, when automakers must have reduced the average emissions of their new cars by 55 percent compared with 2021. Whether and to what extent e-fuels will be used to meet this target depends on a proposal from the Commission that Frans Timmermans promised to Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing. Read an Analysis of this in this issue.
For automakers, this already means that they will have to develop more e-cars or hybrids in order to achieve the targets. However, they are also dependent on drivers’ willingness to buy. And that depends directly on the charging options available.
The Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) is intended to ensure Europe-wide expansion. A charging capacity of at least 400 kW is to be installed every 60 kilometers by the end of 2025 and increased to 600 kW by the end of 2027. For trucks and buses, a charging station every 120 kilometers over 1400 kW to 2800 kW will be mandatory by the end of 2027. In addition, a hydrogen filling station must be installed every 200 kilometers by the end of 2030.
Apparently, it is not enough to simply add charging stations. The German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) recently warned of an oversupply. In any case, the expansion in Germany is considered the most advanced in Europe. The challenge will be complete network coverage. This means that EU rules mean that expansion must also be driven forward in remote locations and in all EU countries.
What will be the focus of the next SOTEU (State of the European Union), to use the jargon in the European bubble? There is a lot of speculation in Brussels at the moment. Opinions differ, but everyone agrees that von der Leyen’s speech on Sept. 13 will close the cycle she opened in December 2019 with her famous “Europe’s ‘Man on the Moon’ moment“ when she presented the Green Deal to the public.
While the climate mission of this European Apollo 11 is virtually complete, the issues of agriculture and biodiversity are not only far from it, but have become political dynamite. Everyone still remembers the furious battle over the nature restoration bill. Other dossiers related to agriculture and the Green Deal have similar explosive power: the Sustainable Food System, glyphosate, industrial emissions – to name a few.
Two days after the SOTEU speech, the EU Commission will publish a draft implementing act to extend the authorization of glyphosate. The document is “in the internal consultation phase” and will be circulated “very soon”, an executive representative told the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee on Wednesday. The official said the text would be published before the Standing Committee on Plant Health (Scopaff) meeting scheduled for Sept. 15. “The process is extremely transparent,” she assured in response to criticism from several MEPs on the left side of the Chamber.
Then, on Sept. 19, von der Leyen will speak at an agricultural event hosted by her political group, the EPP – the same group that led the front against the restoration bill.
Does that mean the days of big demonstrations with tractors and manure piles that characterized the 1990s are over? “Everyone is afraid of farmers,” a European political insider said recently. Farmers may be in decline (in France, their numbers have dropped from 1.6 million in 1986 to 400,000 in 2019), but they’d rather leave their tractors in the garage to get involved in politics.
Indeed, at the European level, many farmers and ranchers are represented in the Parliamentary Agri Committee. They are also present at the local level. In France, although farmers now account for only 1.5 percent of the working population, they still make up 11 percent of mayors and three percent of regional councils. And they are also represented in banking institutions such as Crédit Agricole and in cooperatives.
But voilà, the Green Deal has helped to reshuffle the institutional cards, especially with regard to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Before the Green Deal, in fact, the CAP was negotiated between a small number of actors: the ministries of agriculture united in the Council of the EU (AGRIFISH), the Commission’s agriculture department (DG AGRI) and, since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) in Parliament.
Now, in Parliament, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) has been given shared responsibility for articles dealing with climate and environmental issues. In other words, AGRI is still responsible for all agricultural dossiers, but must cooperate with ENVI on some dossiers, which causes more than gnashing of teeth in the Committee.
And in the Commission, DG AGRI’s monopoly was thwarted by the agricultural offshoot of the Green Deal, the Farm to Fork strategy. For example, Vice-President Frans Timmermans, who was in charge at the time, and Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski took part in the CAP negotiations. There, too, there was gnashing of teeth.
Given the political weight of the agricultural dossiers, the President of the European Commission thus has the option of either mentioning these dossiers directly in her speech. Or she keeps quiet about them. This would also be a political and strategic decision.
On France’s roads, a new traffic sign could cause confusion among German tourists: A separate lane for soccer fans? The white rhombus on a blue background, often seen as the logo of a German soccer club, has a different purpose, however: it marks lanes on which the environmental balance in road traffic is to be improved by means of more efficient vehicle use. Carpools, buses, e-cars – they all have a “private” lane here. In and around Lyon, Grenoble and Strasbourg, such lanes have been in place for several months; Rennes and Nantes are working on implementation.
Since hardly anyone has complied with these new rules so far, speed cameras are now also being installed. Anyone who disregards the sign must expect a fine of €135. Drivers who are sitting all alone in a car in a HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane, which is reserved for carpools or cars with at least two occupants during rush hour, will be fined. The lane is also open to electric cars with a green French environmental badge, regardless of the number of occupants.
As the Paris Environment Ministry recently announced, the regulation, which has so far been sporadically monitored by the police, is almost always disregarded, so that the hoped-for success of the separate lanes is in jeopardy. The speed cameras can detect whether one or more people are sitting in the car. The ministry hopes that the separate lanes will, above all, reduce pollutant emissions.
As the spokeswoman for the city of Strasbourg, Laura Martin, said, the aim is to reduce the number of commuters who travel to the Alsace metropolis alone in their cars. Currently, 37.5 percent of all trips in the city are made by car. On average, a car is occupied by 1.4 people.
The EU Parliament’s car service, which regularly shuttles between Brussels and Strasbourg, probably also contributes to this. In the past, there had been criticism that many of the cars arrived in Strasbourg empty, to be used for journeys between the airport and the parliament building. However, according to the parliament, most of the vehicles will be e-cars – so even with just one occupant, they are free to use the new environmental lane in this case.
Perhaps the measure in France will lead to a boom for ride-sharing services like BlaBlaCar? Or even a renaissance for hitchhikers. leo/with dpa
Since the beginning of June, Volker Wissing has been waiting for a response to his letter to Frans Timmermans. In the letter, the Federal Minister of Transport once again insisted on a concrete proposal as to how e-fuels-only internal combustion engines can still be approved after 2035. He has not yet received an answer, as can be seen from the German government’s response to a question from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
Now Timmermans is no longer there and the Slovakian Maroš Šefčovič is taking over the Green Deal tasks. Wissing can possibly expect more commitment from Šefčovič on this issue, as Timmermans is considered a strict opponent of e-fuels in passenger cars. Nevertheless, it will probably be November before the Commission makes its proposal. This may be due to disputes between the directorates general involved, as we write in our Analysis.
On Monday, Wissing is also hosting the German government’s e-fuels conference in Munich. Government representatives from the G20, EU Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean, and industry representatives and scientists want to discuss the market ramp-up of e-fuels and sign a joint declaration of intent.
It is the first international forum to start a dialogue on e-fuels beyond EU borders. E-fuel advocates hope for better market conditions and a concerted framework. Environmentalists caution against the limited availability of the (still) expensive fuel and call for clear prioritization in distribution. Next week, both sides will meet several times in Munich, as the IAA motor show also starts on Tuesday.
We hope you have a relaxing and wonderful weekend!
The Commission still needs time to regulate synthetic fuels in new cars and vans. According to information from Table.Media, its proposal on how new vehicles with synthetic fuels (e-fuels) can be registered beyond the ban on internal combustion engines from 2035 will come in November at the earliest.
The Commission had announced the proposal for approval regulations for vehicles that can run exclusively on e-fuels to the German Ministry of Transport for the summer. The legislative proposal is to be presented to the member states in the Technical Committee Motor Vehicles (TCMV). According to reports in Brussels, the proposal will be presented at the TCMV meeting in November at the earliest. For the proposal to enter into force, it will then require the approval of a qualified majority of the member states.
A spokesman for the Commission told Table.Media: “The Commission plans to consult member states in the coming weeks with a view to the vote that will take place later this year.” He added that the regulation would then be submitted to Parliament and Council for consideration.
Minister Volker Wissing is putting on the pressure. A ministry spokesman explained: “We expect the European Commission to fulfill its promise and promptly submit a proposal for the introduction of approval regulations for ‘e-fuels-only’ vehicles as a first step.” The ministry is counting on this happening before the next meeting of the relevant technical committee in Brussels at the beginning of October.
The reason for the delay could be a dissension between the involved Directorates General of the Commission. According to information from Table.Media, DG Clima had vetoed the legislative proposal from DG Grow. DG Grow (Industry and Internal Market) is in charge of e-fuels. It is responsible because the opening clause for e-fuels-only vehicles is to be inserted into the existing type approval legislation (Euro 6). And DG Grow is responsible for type approval.
In the internal Commission vote of July 19, DG Clima has taken a negative position. It has made several reservations. The most serious is the objection concerning the definition of e-fuels, which can be used by new vehicles even after the entry into force of the combustion ban. In the legislative proposal, DG Grow had adopted the Commission’s 2021 definition of “low-carbon fuels”. Here, a reduction in CO2 emissions of at least 70 percent must be guaranteed.
DG Clima calls for this value to be 100 percent. The text says: “With the proposed definition, there is a risk that the market introduction of vehicles that run exclusively on CO2-neutral fuels after 2035 will hinder the achievement of our climate targets.” This would set a precedent for considering “carbon-neutral” technologies that reduced emissions by only 70 percent compared to fossil fuels.
E-fuel manufacturers, on the other hand, point out that the required value of 100 percent is possible during operation, but not when considering the life cycle of the fuels.
It is possible, however, that DG Clima’s attitude toward e-fuels may still change. In the meantime, Frans Timmermans, the Vice-President responsible for the Green Deal, has left the Commission. Timmermans declared his vehement opposition to the use of e-fuels in cars and vans. He saw e-fuels as a threat to the industry’s transformation to electric cars. Following Timmermans’ departure, Slovak Social Democrat Maroš Šefčovič is Vice President in charge of the Green Deal.
He is oriented to the cause and has proven that he has sympathies for the industry. The Dutch Christian Democrat Wopke Hoekstra is also to become the new Climate Commissioner. He would then also be responsible for DG Clima and could exert a moderating influence. However, it is said in Brussels that Hoekstra will take over from Timmermans’ cabinet chief Diederik Samsom. Samsom was an NGO activist for Greenpeace, party leader of the Social Democrats in the Netherlands and was seen as the driving force behind Timmermans’ proposals to ban the use of internal combustion engines in cars and light commercial vehicles.
Jens Gieseke (CDU), a member of the Environment Committee, says: “Wissing let Timmermans pull him over the coals in the spring. On e-fuels, there were only promises and no firm commitments.” Now, he says, it shows that the Commission is divided and cannot present a proposal. “Wissing is still empty-handed. He should now put pressure on EU Commissioner Šefčovič to finally deliver results.” With Lukas Scheid
Reform of the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was seen as the centerpiece of the Fit for 55 package. It is intended to achieve a large part of the CO₂ reduction of 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. This is to be achieved firstly through higher CO₂ prices, by reducing the quantity of emission allowances on the market more quickly than before. In 2024, 90 million certificates will be lost, and in 2026 another 27 million – in addition to the quantities that are already disappearing each year. This means that 130 million fewer emission allowances will flow onto the market next year than in previous years.
Currently, the European CO2 price is around €85 per ton of CO2. At the start of next year, the CO2 price will therefore rise as a result of the market shortage, with experts predicting an average price for 2024 of around €100 per ton of CO2 – some forecasts even anticipate prices of well over €100. This will affect the energy industry as well as emissions-intensive industries (oil refineries as well as steel, iron, aluminum, cement, paper and glass producers).
What this means for the development of prices for end products is difficult to predict. On the one hand, because the actual costs resulting from the higher CO2 prices depend on the emissions intensity of the technology used and vary from plant to plant. On the other hand, companies have already been trading emission rights for many years and usually still have more favorable certificates at their disposal. The price increase therefore does not have an immediate effect, but rather takes place over much longer periods of time. Nevertheless, it is clear that the price increase curve will steepen in the coming years as a result of the more drastic shortages.
The long-disputed second emissions trading scheme for buildings and transport will not come into effect until 2027. In Germany, it will have little impact on prices, as Germany already charges a CO2 price in these very sectors. The EU’s ETS 2 is capped at €45 by a price stability mechanism. The German CO2 price on fuels at this time will be up to €65.
The situation is different for shipping. The maritime sector will fall under the ETS for the first time in 2024. Not only CO2 but also methane and ammonia emissions will be taken into account. Initially, only 40 percent of emissions will be covered, from 2025 already 70 percent, from 2026 then 100 percent. This means that shipping companies will also have to purchase certificates for their emissions. Up to 120 million metric tons of CO2 are to be prevented in this way by 2030, as part of the proceeds will flow back into the sector and contribute to the decarbonization of shipping.
However, there is currently still a loophole for shipping companies, which needs to be closed by regulation. A study by a World Bank transport expert suggests that shipping companies could instead shift their transport activities to ports close to the EU, where the ETS does not apply. Thus, more emissions would be caused by bypasses and revenues for EU countries would be prevented.
Theoretically, air traffic has been part of the ETS since 2012, but airlines were provided with free emission rights so as not to jeopardize international competition. For intra-European flights, this will come to an end from 2026, which should then also make flights within the EU more expensive.
The CO2 fleet limits almost shook up the coalition in Berlin. However, their regulatory impact will not take effect until 2030, when automakers must have reduced the average emissions of their new cars by 55 percent compared with 2021. Whether and to what extent e-fuels will be used to meet this target depends on a proposal from the Commission that Frans Timmermans promised to Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing. Read an Analysis of this in this issue.
For automakers, this already means that they will have to develop more e-cars or hybrids in order to achieve the targets. However, they are also dependent on drivers’ willingness to buy. And that depends directly on the charging options available.
The Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) is intended to ensure Europe-wide expansion. A charging capacity of at least 400 kW is to be installed every 60 kilometers by the end of 2025 and increased to 600 kW by the end of 2027. For trucks and buses, a charging station every 120 kilometers over 1400 kW to 2800 kW will be mandatory by the end of 2027. In addition, a hydrogen filling station must be installed every 200 kilometers by the end of 2030.
Apparently, it is not enough to simply add charging stations. The German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) recently warned of an oversupply. In any case, the expansion in Germany is considered the most advanced in Europe. The challenge will be complete network coverage. This means that EU rules mean that expansion must also be driven forward in remote locations and in all EU countries.
What will be the focus of the next SOTEU (State of the European Union), to use the jargon in the European bubble? There is a lot of speculation in Brussels at the moment. Opinions differ, but everyone agrees that von der Leyen’s speech on Sept. 13 will close the cycle she opened in December 2019 with her famous “Europe’s ‘Man on the Moon’ moment“ when she presented the Green Deal to the public.
While the climate mission of this European Apollo 11 is virtually complete, the issues of agriculture and biodiversity are not only far from it, but have become political dynamite. Everyone still remembers the furious battle over the nature restoration bill. Other dossiers related to agriculture and the Green Deal have similar explosive power: the Sustainable Food System, glyphosate, industrial emissions – to name a few.
Two days after the SOTEU speech, the EU Commission will publish a draft implementing act to extend the authorization of glyphosate. The document is “in the internal consultation phase” and will be circulated “very soon”, an executive representative told the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee on Wednesday. The official said the text would be published before the Standing Committee on Plant Health (Scopaff) meeting scheduled for Sept. 15. “The process is extremely transparent,” she assured in response to criticism from several MEPs on the left side of the Chamber.
Then, on Sept. 19, von der Leyen will speak at an agricultural event hosted by her political group, the EPP – the same group that led the front against the restoration bill.
Does that mean the days of big demonstrations with tractors and manure piles that characterized the 1990s are over? “Everyone is afraid of farmers,” a European political insider said recently. Farmers may be in decline (in France, their numbers have dropped from 1.6 million in 1986 to 400,000 in 2019), but they’d rather leave their tractors in the garage to get involved in politics.
Indeed, at the European level, many farmers and ranchers are represented in the Parliamentary Agri Committee. They are also present at the local level. In France, although farmers now account for only 1.5 percent of the working population, they still make up 11 percent of mayors and three percent of regional councils. And they are also represented in banking institutions such as Crédit Agricole and in cooperatives.
But voilà, the Green Deal has helped to reshuffle the institutional cards, especially with regard to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Before the Green Deal, in fact, the CAP was negotiated between a small number of actors: the ministries of agriculture united in the Council of the EU (AGRIFISH), the Commission’s agriculture department (DG AGRI) and, since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (AGRI) in Parliament.
Now, in Parliament, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) has been given shared responsibility for articles dealing with climate and environmental issues. In other words, AGRI is still responsible for all agricultural dossiers, but must cooperate with ENVI on some dossiers, which causes more than gnashing of teeth in the Committee.
And in the Commission, DG AGRI’s monopoly was thwarted by the agricultural offshoot of the Green Deal, the Farm to Fork strategy. For example, Vice-President Frans Timmermans, who was in charge at the time, and Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski took part in the CAP negotiations. There, too, there was gnashing of teeth.
Given the political weight of the agricultural dossiers, the President of the European Commission thus has the option of either mentioning these dossiers directly in her speech. Or she keeps quiet about them. This would also be a political and strategic decision.
On France’s roads, a new traffic sign could cause confusion among German tourists: A separate lane for soccer fans? The white rhombus on a blue background, often seen as the logo of a German soccer club, has a different purpose, however: it marks lanes on which the environmental balance in road traffic is to be improved by means of more efficient vehicle use. Carpools, buses, e-cars – they all have a “private” lane here. In and around Lyon, Grenoble and Strasbourg, such lanes have been in place for several months; Rennes and Nantes are working on implementation.
Since hardly anyone has complied with these new rules so far, speed cameras are now also being installed. Anyone who disregards the sign must expect a fine of €135. Drivers who are sitting all alone in a car in a HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lane, which is reserved for carpools or cars with at least two occupants during rush hour, will be fined. The lane is also open to electric cars with a green French environmental badge, regardless of the number of occupants.
As the Paris Environment Ministry recently announced, the regulation, which has so far been sporadically monitored by the police, is almost always disregarded, so that the hoped-for success of the separate lanes is in jeopardy. The speed cameras can detect whether one or more people are sitting in the car. The ministry hopes that the separate lanes will, above all, reduce pollutant emissions.
As the spokeswoman for the city of Strasbourg, Laura Martin, said, the aim is to reduce the number of commuters who travel to the Alsace metropolis alone in their cars. Currently, 37.5 percent of all trips in the city are made by car. On average, a car is occupied by 1.4 people.
The EU Parliament’s car service, which regularly shuttles between Brussels and Strasbourg, probably also contributes to this. In the past, there had been criticism that many of the cars arrived in Strasbourg empty, to be used for journeys between the airport and the parliament building. However, according to the parliament, most of the vehicles will be e-cars – so even with just one occupant, they are free to use the new environmental lane in this case.
Perhaps the measure in France will lead to a boom for ride-sharing services like BlaBlaCar? Or even a renaissance for hitchhikers. leo/with dpa
