Fuel for thought: combustion engines find favor in EU vote

While the far-right’s gains in the European elections were expected, the political map remains largely unchanged. However, a notable Green decline, exceeding 10% only in Scandinavia, Austria, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, has caught the attention of European media. 

This development opens the door to rolling back some of the EU’s ambitious environmental goals set by the European Green Deal: As Karl Mathiesen, Zia Weise and Louise Guillot note on Politico, “the newly-buoyed right wasted no time in firing its first shot at the EU’s flagship package of green laws, minutes after proclaiming victory”. The leader of the triumphant People’s Party (EPP) branded the 2035 ban on internal combustion engines a “mistake” that must be overturned soon.

This development is applauded by Josef Urschitz writing for Austria’s conservative-liberal newspaper Die Presse, which describes a “Great backward flip in electromobility.” The European automotive industry, a cornerstone of the continent’s economy, appears to be aligning with this shift. Volkswagen, the world’s second-largest automaker, has reconsidered its plan to cease developing new combustion engines, redirecting over a third of its planned €180 billion investment towards combustion-powered vehicles.

In German weekly Focus, Hans-Jürgen Moritz anticipates modifications to the Green Deal, potentially benefiting industry and competitiveness. However, the elections’ negative impact on electric car sales does not bode well for Germany’s automotive sector, notably Volkswagen, which has long staked its future on electromobility.

While a warming planet makes abandoning green policies seem illogical, Anja Krüger, business editor of Germany’s left-leaning Tageszeitung attributes the shift to “social ignorance”.  The crux of climate policy, carbon pricing, hinges on polluters bearing the cost.  However, the lack of promised “climate money” offsets for citizens facing rising costs erodes support for such initiatives.

“In the Czech Republic, the combustion engine triumphed in the EU elections,” observes Hospodářské noviny commentator Petr Honzejk. The unexpected success of the anti-environmentalist and anti-immigration party Motorists, led by Filip Turek – a former car racer with a penchant for Nazi symbols and salutes – secured third place with 10% of the vote. Honzejk suggests that mainstream parties’ relentless emphasis on preserving the internal combustion engine as a national interest resonated with voters, who ultimately favored a candidate offering a whiff of petrol fumes and novelty.

In Slovakia, the world’s leading car producer per capita, Igor Daniš, a columnist for the liberal-left daily Pravda, welcomes the shift in the debate over the 2035 ban on internal combustion engines. Previously dominated by far-right and far-left voices, the issue has now been embraced by Germany’s conservative CDU/CSU. Daniš applauds the conservatives for advocating a retreat from dogmatism towards pragmatism, warning that without such a shift, the transition to electromobility could “resemble China’s disastrous Great Leap Forward of the 1950s, which led to widespread famine”.

Hungary’s economic daily HVG, based in the world’s fourth-largest battery producer and thus a country well-positioned for electromobility, takes a more sober view of potential Green Deal revisions.  The paper notes that altering the Deal, a brainchild of the European Commission’s newly re-appointed president Ursula von der Leyen, will be no easy feat. However, HVG argues that the Green Deal poses a genuine threat to many low-income families who, while aware of the need to combat climate change, are priced out of the transition due to the higher cost of electric vehicles.

A similarly sober assessment of potential changes to the Green Deal is echoed by most experts interviewed by Angelo Romano of the Italian news site Valigia Blu. Repealing the EU legislation bundled under the Green Deal, established over the past five years, would be exceedingly difficult. The green transition is well underway, and halting it would be counterproductive for European industry, risking a loss of ground to China and the United States, which already lead the clean energy sector. 

Simone Tagliapietra, Professor of EU Climate and Energy Policy at The Johns Hopkins University, strikes an optimistic note about the future of the Green Deal in his commentary for the Spanish economic daily El Economista. He points out that the pro-European centre retains its majority in the European Parliament, despite gains by the far-right. A critical issue, he argues, is the equitable distribution of transition costs; if these fall predominantly on citizens, it will exacerbate inequality and render the transition socially and politically untenable. The EU must now streamline and simplify existing funding mechanisms to provide robust support to the most vulnerable groups, as well as the middle class, who will need assistance in adopting green alternatives, such as electric cars and sustainable home heating solutions.

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Karin Kőváry Sólymos | Vsquare | 12 June | EN

The biofuel industry in Europe, buoyed by EU subsidies, has sparked debates over its environmental and economic impacts. Slovak businessman Ján Sabol and former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš have significantly profited from this billion-euro sector.

Rapeseed, essential for biofuels, faces criticism for its environmental toll, including the extensive use of chemicals and monoculture farming. Despite these concerns, EU subsidies have driven farmers to expand rapeseed cultivation, often replacing traditional crops.

In 2023, Slovak farmers received over €12 million in direct payments for rapeseed. Companies like Sabol’s Envien and Babiš’s Agrofert dominate the market. Babiš, often called the “yellow baron,” has leveraged his company’s rapeseed operations to become a major player in the Czech biofuel industry.

The EU’s reliance on first-generation biofuels, derived from crops like rapeseed, is controversial. Critics argue this distorts markets, raises food prices, and offers dubious environmental benefits. Advanced biofuels, made from non-food sources, are seen as the future but remain underutilized.

Slovakia plans to increase biofuel content in fuels to over 11% by 2030, still heavily relying on current methods. The EU’s inconsistent biofuels policy has been criticized for lacking clarity and effectiveness in reducing transport emissions.