Italy's conservative government of Giorgia Meloni has called on the EU to scrap its Green Agenda plan to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035.
Speaking at the Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio, Italy, over the weekend, Rome's Energy Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin stated bluntly that “the ban must be changed.” According to To Bloomberg.
Pichet-Flatin said Brussels' plans to ban the sale of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035 were “absurd” and driven by an “ideological vision” of a centralised command economy rather than European reality.
Italy's Minister of Economic Development, Adolfo Urso, echoed similar sentiments, pointing to the problems facing German car giant Volkswagen, which is considering closing a factory for the first time in German history due to rising energy costs, falling demand for electric vehicles and competition from Communist China.
“In the current uncertain situation affecting the German car industry, we need a clear vision to avoid the collapse of European industry,” Urso said. “Europe needs a realistic vision. The ideological vision has failed and we need to admit that.”
Meanwhile, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the populist wing of Prime Minister Meloni's coalition government, said his League party would present a bill to the Rome parliament that would legally oblige the government to repeal the EU directive.
“The League is ready to present a document committing Parliament, the government and the European Commission to avoid economic, social and environmental suicide and to ask them to repeal the ban on petrol and diesel engines from 2035, whose suspension is also at the centre of debate in Germany,” Salvini said. said on sunday.
The populist deputy prime minister also argued that Italy needed to turn to nuclear energy. say“I believe that returning Italy to a clean, modern and efficient nuclear energy framework is one of the most important tasks of my government. Our country's development, growth and sustainability are at stake and we can no longer say no.”
According to Sales of electric vehicles fell 10 percent in the year to May from a year earlier, according to the European Alternative Fuels Observatory, a group run by the European Commission. That contrasts with a 3 percent drop in sales in the European Union's overall auto market.
The EU is currently considering imposing tariffs on Chinese-made electric cars. Imposed The EU has imposed temporary tariffs of up to 37.6 percent on electric car imports from the communist country over heavily subsidized vehicles, but member states are divided on whether to support permanent tariffs.
The main opposition parties come German automakers, which sold a third of their total sales to Chinese customers last year, are worried that Beijing could use tariffs on EVs as a pretext to launch a broader trade war that would threaten the profits of companies such as BMW and Volkswagen AG, which could also be hit by tariffs on cars made in their Chinese factories.
