The chairman of the European People’s Party calls for abandoning the ban on internal combustion engines in 2035

Current plans are to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines in the European Union from 2035, but there are growing signs that this ban could be revised. The chairman of the European People’s Party (EPP) group represented in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, calls for a review of this ban so that Europe does not lose its competitiveness in the future, the politician told the German media “Funke Mediengruppe” in an interview.

In Germany, he represents the Union of Christian Democrats, but in the European Parliament he is the leader of the influential European People’s Party. There were already reports that after the European Parliament elections scheduled for early summer, this European Parliament faction plans to review the ban on internal combustion engines.

“It is clear that the ban on internal combustion engines is a mistake of industrial policy, but China benefits a lot from it,” says Weber, calling for the protection of the European Union’s economy directly from the threat posed by China. “We want to correct this mistake after the European Parliament elections.”

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has recently stated in interviews that the ban on internal combustion engines will be reviewed again in 2026.

Germany is the leading car manufacturing country in Europe and this industry is very important to the country’s economy, employing hundreds of thousands of people. Meanwhile, German automakers have struggled in their transition to electric cars, this market niche being quite successfully filled by the Chinese. True, while German manufacturers have to earn their own money to invest in electrification projects, Chinese companies receive large-scale state support, which allows them to sell machines much cheaper than their competitors. Germany previously opposed the ban on internal combustion engines and managed to get the terms relaxed a bit.

In the interview, Weber states that the so-called “Green Agreement”, which envisages Europe’s transition towards climate neutrality, must not become a “China Agreement”. A few weeks ago, the Union of Christian Democrats in Germany adopted its program for the European Parliament elections, where one of the points is the revision and cancellation of the ban on internal combustion engines. So far, it has not reached the program of the European People’s Party, but presumably it is only a matter of time.