Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has described the EU’s ban on the sale of new fossil fuel-powered car engines after 2035 as a “self-destructive” policy and vowed to put pressure on Brussels to “correct these decisions”.
Speaking at the Italian industry association Confindustria on Wednesday, the prime minister argued that the ‘forced conversion’ of the entire EU market for new light vehicles to electric within ten years was ‘very unwise as a strategy’.
The green transition cannot mean the destruction of thousands of jobs or the elimination of entire industries that generate wealth and jobs,” Meloni said, criticising the “disastrous effects” of Europe’s Green Deal and its “ideological approach”.
Meloni argued that the EU should follow the principle of technological neutrality, allowing each member state to define its own tactics to reduce CO₂ emissions, rather than mandating a wholesale switch to electric vehicles.
Italian leader warns about raw materials and supply chain
“We want to defend Europe’s industrial capacity,” said Meloni, arguing that when it comes to electric vehicles, the EU does not own the raw materials and does not control the value chain.
“I promise to continue to work vigorously to correct these decisions. We want to follow the path of reducing emissions … with common sense … using all available technologies … saving tens of thousands of jobs,” he said.
Those who are friends of Europe must have the courage to show what does not work,’ Meloni said, reiterating his government’s commitment to ‘fix’ these policies.
“Europe’s ambitious environmental goals must be backed by adequate investment and resources, together with a coherent plan to achieve them,” Meloni said, referring to the recent report on Europe’s competitiveness by former Italian prime minister and former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi.
He was sharply critical after Italy, Germany, and some eastern European countries such as the car parts-producing Czech Republic stepped up calls for an early and urgent review of EU car emissions rules, which would mean a ban on the sale of new internal combustion engines by 2035.
German minister: Europe loses credibility
The rules, agreed for 2023, are among the most controversial parts of the bloc’s ambitious Green Deal climate policy, with carmakers and governments of car-producing countries calling for a delay to the ban or more flexibility in the rules, including allowing the use of carbon-neutral e-fuels.
“Europe is losing credibility because it is setting targets that even it cannot meet,” German Transport Minister Volker Wissing, a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), told a transport trade fair this week.
“While recognising that it is necessary to set targets, they must be realistic and ‘feasible in practice’,” Wissing said.
Brussels has the right to review the legislation in 2026, prompting conservative MEPs, including members of Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP), to call on Brussels to use this opportunity to reconsider the ban.
Italy is even pushing for the review to be postponed until next year, as its own car industry faces a deepening crisis with falling production due to falling consumer demand for electric vehicles.
Sharp drop in car production in Italy
According to the National Automobile Industry Supply Chain Association, which represents Italy’s car and parts manufacturers, only 225,000 passenger cars were produced in Italy in the first seven months of 2024, down 35.5 per cent on the same period last year.
Speaking at a recent business forum, Italian Industry Minister Adolfo Urso said: “The Green Deal as it was conceived has failed. The European car industry is collapsing. Decisions have to be taken; we cannot wait two years,” he said.
Stellantis, Italy’s largest carmaker and the international group that owns the Fiat brand, announced last week that it was suspending production of electric Fiat 500s at its historic Turin plant for four weeks, citing weak demand.
