Stick to the fossil fuel car ban, says incoming EU transport chief

Greek centre-right politician Apostolos Tzitzikostas sailed through a confirmation hearing at the European Parliament on Monday night while staunchly defending an EU law to slash emissions from road transport that has been questioned by the European People’s Party (EPP), his own political family.

“Let’s be clear,” Tzitzikostas told EPP group lawmaker Jens Gieseke at the start of a hearing that would run to over three hours on Monday night (4 November).

“We have two CO2 standards. We have specific goals, and we have to stick to the plan: 2025, 25% reduction; 2035, 100% reduction.”

European carmakers have said they are not ready to meet stricter limits on exhaust-pipe carbon emissions limits next year, warning the industry faces billions of euros in fines and inevitable mass lay-offs of workers, and called for an immediate revision of the law.

The Greek MEP said he would follow to the letter a revision clause that empowers the Commission to explore allowing the sale of cars with internal combustion engines post-2035 that are intended to run exclusively on “low-carbon” biological or synthetic fuels.

Because the emissions limit is based on the average across annual production, manufacturers had hoped to balance sales of profitable SUV-type petrol cars with surging sales of zero-emissions battery powered models – but a recent dip in EV sales sent them into panic mode.

But, despite being repeatedly pressed by EPP and nationalist MEPs, Tzitzikostas remained adamant the EU must stick to its guns, implying that the car industry had brought the situation upon itself but that the EU executive stood ready to help turn things around before the 2025 deadline and the de facto ban on fossil-fuel car sales from 2035.

The rules were set years ago so there is “certainty and stability” on the market, he told Roman Haider of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party. “Companies still have 11 years to…get there progressively,” he said. To abandon the targets at this late stage would signal a “lack of stability and trust” in EU market rules.

The EU executive plans to address the issue with specific action for the automotive industry in the Clean Industrial Deal that Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has promised within 100 days of her second administration taking office in the coming weeks.

At the centre will be measures to promote a market for electric vehicles, Tzitzikostas said, promising action to electrify the sales of corporate fleets that make up some 60% of the European market. He stopped short of proposing to set legally binding targets in law, however, suggesting an initiative based on incentives as a possibility following discussions with other commissioners.

Either way, the aim would be to help create a second-hand market which, combined with the promotion of smaller, more affordable electric cars that manufacturers have neglected so far, would drive up demand and help them meet the looming CO2 targets.

A late-night meeting of political group coordinators saw Tzitzikostas’s candidacy endorsed by a comfortable majority, with the the small Left caucus abstaining and the ultra-nationalist Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) opposing his candidacy.

Train tickets, military transport and tourism

As well as evidently winning over the EPP with a confident and fluent performance, the long-time governor of the region of Central Macedonia pleased the Greens with a promise to promote rail travel, with a proposal to make it easy to book journeys between EU countries, and to promote the development of night trains and a high-speed rail network.

“My intention is to bring single ticketing as soon as possible,” he said pledging to table a legislative propose next year that would allow booking a trip from anywhere to anywhere in Europe at the click of a smartphone.

Tzitzikostas also pointed to geopolitical issues, referring to Ukraine as a future EU member and stressing the need to make new transport infrastructure capable of “dual use”, with railways and roads capable of carrying heavy military equipment, and tackling transport of sanctioned Russian oil through a “shadow” fleet of poorly regulated or insured vessels.

Although he is the first commissioner designate also to hold tourism as a specific portfolio, the hearing only touched fleetingly on the subject.

Tzitzikostas promised to support Europe’s position as “number one tourist destination in the world” and present a sustainable tourism strategy early in his five-year mandate. Asked about unsustainable visitor numbers that are provoking a backlash in some locations, he spoke of a need to “find and showcase alternative destinations” and to promote eco-tourism.

Pressed on the 2023 Tempi rail disaster that saw 57 people killed on his watch in Greece last year, Tzitzikostas said safety was his paramount concern, and that EU rules would be applied without fear or favour across the entire bloc.

The transport committee will now recommend group leaders endorse the Greek commissioner designate. Once all hearings are completed, the European Parliament will vote on the EU executive as a whole before the second von der Leyen Commission takes office.