Cars: EU Council adopts negotiating position on Euro 7. Zero emissions target
The Council of the European Union, meeting in Brussels, officially adopted its negotiating position regarding the Euro 7 regulation, which aims to regulate emissions from cars, vans, buses and trucks. The legislation Euro 7– which for the first time concerns cars, vans and heavy vehicles – focuses mainly on the approval of motor vehiclesas well as the systems, components and technical parts related to them, focusing on their emissions and battery life.
The main objective is to establish stricter standards for vehicle emissions and contribute to further reductions in emissions of air pollutants from road transport. Spain’s interim Industry Minister, Héctor Gómez Hernández, underlined Europe’s importance in producing low-emission, high-quality cars. He said the goal is to continue to improve air quality, drive future mobility and set realistic emissions levels for vehicles over the next decade. This, according to the Minister, will help the European automotive industry make the transition to zero-emission vehicles by 2035.
READ ALSO: Stellantis leader of the green transition: fifth car manufacturer in the world
READ ALSO: Cars, skip the green transition. EU, no goodbye to diesel and petrol in 2026
The Council of the EU states that this negotiating position seeks to balance the implementation of stringent vehicle emissions requirements with the automotive industry’s need to make additional investments. However, the new regulation generally maintains existing emission limits and test conditions for light-duty vehicles, while introducing lower limits and slightly adapted test conditions for heavy-duty vehicles. Furthermore, Euro 7 contains a special provision for city buses to ensure consistency with the target of zero emissions by 2030 for these vehicles.
Adolfo Urso, Minister of Business and Made in Italy: “Reason has finally prevailed over ideology”
On the sidelines of the Competitiveness Council underway in Brussels, the Minister of Business and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, also spoke: “A true reversal of the forces on the field, he has declared, essentially reflects the requests of the ‘responsibility front’ coordinated by the Czech Republic, together with Italy and France, which on the merits achieved a large and unprecedented majority in the Council, changing the structures on the ecological transition for the first time”.
Urso praised the approved text, underlining that it represents a concrete, realistic and pragmatic vision, which has been requested several times by Italy. Lhe new proposed regulation would postpone the adoption time of the legislation by approximately two years, giving companies more time to adapt to the ecological transition for both light and heavy vehicles. Furthermore, the text eliminates more restrictive constraints, maintaining the values established by the Euro 6 regulation for internal combustion engines, particulate emissions and the conditions for car emissions tests.
Urso added that “reason has finally prevailed over ideology, therefore the Italian line of responsibility, concreteness and pragmatism. We have put the Euro 7 dossier on the right path which is to combine the transition towards electric with the needs of European citizens, workers and businesses. We succeeded with a large majority and this also comforts us on the next dossiers”.
Beyond this, the new regulation also aims to protect the automotive supply chain of small-volume manufacturers, such as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati, which are symbols of Made in Italy. For these manufacturers, the new proposal requires that European, rather than global, scale production be used to calculate eligibility for the small volume category. Commercial vehicle manufacturers, such as Iveco and CNH, will also continue to follow the constraints established by the Euro 6 regulation. These changes are important for the Italian supply chain, which participates in the production of over 320,000 commercial vehicles per year. Adolfo Urso then concluded, “we are finally on the right path, to combine the objectives of environmental sustainability with the needs of the European social and industrial system. The season of ideological madness is over, now the common sense of reason prevails.”
Subscribe to the newsletter
