Seven nations defend EU’s 2035 engine ban

On one side: France, Spain, and five smaller countries defending a hard deadline that protects billions in battery investments. On the other: Germany, Italy, and a group of eastern European states fighting to keep combustion engines alive, each for different reasons, none purely about climate.

The EU's Regulation 2023/851 doesn't technically ban combustion engines. It sets CO2 emissions for new cars at zero grams per kilometre from 2035, which in practice means only battery-electric vehicles can be sold. In December 2025, the European Commission proposed weakening this to 90%, letting carmakers offset the remaining 10% through e-fuels (synthetic fuels made from captured CO2) or biofuels.

On June 5, seven countries signed a joint declaration defending the original target, initiated by France's ecological transition minister. They claim to hold a blocking minority in the EU Council (the 35% of the EU population needed to stop a law), but their combined weight barely clears that threshold. One defection collapses the coalition.

France defends the deadline to protect industrial bets, not climate principles

The French government poured €700 million in subsidies and €880 million in public loans into Verkor's Dunkirk battery factory alone. Those investments only pay off if the 2035 deadline forces carmakers to buy European batteries instead of cheaper Asian ones.

The trouble is that Renault, Verkor's anchor customer, slashed orders from 12 GWh per year to just 3 GWh because the batteries cost 30-40% more than Korean and Chinese alternatives. Macron's original target of 100-120 GWh in French capacity by 2030 is now described as "out of reach". France isn't defending the deadline because its strategy is working. It's defending it because weakening the rule removes the last regulatory prop holding the strategy up.

Germany's industry doesn't agree with its chancellor

Chancellor Merz wants the rule scrapped. The VDA (Germany's auto industry association) projects 225,000 jobs at risk by 2035. But a May 2026 Fraunhofer ISI study found that over 60% of German auto companies have already invested heavily in electrification and consider weakening CO2 standards "the least desired measure." These firms need regulatory certainty to justify billions already spent. The loudest voices for loosening come from the firms that delayed the shift and now want more time.

Italy: one company's biofuel bet, dressed as national strategy

Italy pushes a "third way," letting biofuel-powered cars count as zero-emission. The main beneficiary is Eni, the energy giant, which held 13 meetings with the Commission in 18 months and received €1 billion from the European Investment Bank to convert two refineries. The Parliament's rapporteur on the revision, Massimiliano Salini (Forza Italia/EPP), proposed raising biofuel credits from 3% to 10%, a position environmental groups say mirrors industry lobbying.

But biofuels fail on consumer maths. Driving 100 km on HVO (hydrogenated vegetable oil, the most advanced biofuel) costs about €11.30 in Italy, roughly 52% more than charging an EV at €7.40.

The divide runs east-west

The cheapest new EV in Europe, a Dacia Spring at roughly €16,900, costs about seven months of median net salary in Germany. In Hungary, it's close to two years. France runs a "social leasing" programme offering EVs at €100-200 per month to low-income households, reaching 100,000 families over two years. No eastern EU country has anything comparable.

The gap shows in adoption. Denmark, where EVs account for roughly 80% of new car sales, has nothing to lose from the deadline. Hungary, where battery factories lost 136 billion forints in 2025 and the government is now blocking further Chinese factory expansion, has every reason to stall.

What remains open

Neither Parliament nor Council has voted. Trilogue negotiations (the three-way talks between Commission, Parliament, and Council that finalise EU law) aren't expected before late 2026. The seven-country blocking minority is arithmetically real but fragile. Europe is arguing over the speed of a transition while its battery factories lose money, its workers face retraining without proven models, and the cheapest EVs still come from China.