By AFP
December 12, 2025
Vehicle manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of the EU's overall consumption of plastics - Copyright AFP ISAAC LAWRENCE
Car manufacturers in Europe will have to include more recycled plastics in new vehicles under new EU rules agreed on by the bloc’s countries and lawmakers on Friday.
European Union governments and parliament representatives reached an early morning deal to mandate that at least 25 percent of plastics used in cars, trucks and motorcycles has been recycled.
Carmakers will have to meet the mandatory target in 10 years, with an intermediate 15 percent goal in six years, according to the European Council representing member states.
At least 20 percent of the recycled materials will have to be sourced from old, scrap vehicles.
“This provisional agreement marks a significant step towards a circular economy for the European automotive sector,” said Magnus Heunicke, environment minister for Denmark, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
Vehicle manufacturing accounts for 10 percent of the EU’s overall consumption of plastics, and is responsible for 19 percent of demand for the bloc’s steel industry, according to Brussels.
The deal is provisional and needs to be officially endorsed by the European Council representing member states and the parliament before it is formally adopted.
It also instructs the European Commission to set future targets for recycled steel, aluminium, magnesium and critical raw materials and bans the export of old vehicles that are no longer roadworthy.
Around 3.5 million vehicles “disappear without trace from EU roads” every year and are exported, dismantled or disposed of illegally, according to the council.
The commission had initially proposed a much speedier implementation of the targets — pushing for 25-percent recycled plastic within six years — but member states and parliament won a delay during negotiations.
Concerns about sluggish European growth have taken precedence over green ambitions in Brussels over the past year, leading to a business-friendly drive to slash EU red tape and pare back a slew of laws.
“This deal is a textbook case of political backsliding under industry pressure,” said Fynn Hauschke, of environmental group EEB.
The agreement comes just days before the commission is set to review a landmark 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales.
On Thursday, Manfred Weber, a German EU lawmaker and the head of parliament’s largest group, the EPP, said the ban would be discarded in favour of a 90 percent emission reduction target.
“For new registrations from 2035 onwards, a 90 percent reduction in CO2 emissions will now be mandatory for car manufacturers’ fleet targets, instead of 100 percent,” he told German tabloid Bild, after a meeting with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen.
“This means that the technology ban on combustion engines is off the table. All engines currently built in Germany can therefore continue to be produced and sold.”
Commission officials stressed however that no final decision had been made.
Will EU give ground on 2035 combustion-engine ban?
By AFP
December 6, 2025
European automakers say the EU's push for electric vehicles is too rigid
By AFP
December 6, 2025
European automakers say the EU's push for electric vehicles is too rigid
- Copyright AFP Ina FASSBENDER
Jana HEMMERSMEIER and Frederic POUCHOT
Europe’s embattled auto industry and its backers are ramping up pressure on the EU to relax its planned 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales — hoping for a decision by year end.
The European Commission is due to review the target on December 10 as part of a broader rescue plan for the sector but competing demands from member states and industry risk forcing it to push back the date.
The goal of switching all new cars to electric by 2035 was set in 2023 as a flagship measure of the EU’s environmental Green Deal and a key step towards the bloc achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
But two years on, calls are mounting to revise the target in the name of “pragmatism”.
“Our sector has received the most stringent target as it was perceived to be one of the easiest to decarbonise,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said in a policy paper.
“But the reality has proven much more complicated.”
Meanwhile, Chinese carmakers are flooding the European market with cheaper electric models, sparking fears of an unprecedented crisis among the bloc’s manufacturers, with mass layoffs and factory closures looming.
“The ground is slipping beneath our feet,” the head of France’s Plateforme automotive industry group Luc Chatel warned last month, saying the sector was the victim of “political and dogmatic choices, not technological ones”.
– Germany, Italy push for exemptions –
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has emerged as a leading voice in support of carmakers, urging Brussels to allow sales of plug-in hybrids, range-extender vehicles and highly efficient combustion engines beyond 2035.
Italy wants new cars running on biofuels to remain legal after the deadline.
In the opposing camp, France wants to stick as closely as possible to the all-electric trajectory to safeguard massive investments already made by its carmakers.
“If we abandon the 2035 target, forget about European battery plants,” President Emmanuel Macron warned after an EU summit in October.
France is calling for EU support for battery production and proposing mandatory electrification of corporate fleets using European-made vehicles to avoid favouring Chinese brands. Germany opposes such fleet rules.
BMW chief Oliver Zipse argued in Brussels this week that making corporate fleets go fully electric would amount to bringing the combustion-engine ban “through the back door”.
Lucien Mathieu, of the Transport & Environment advocacy group, warned meanwhile that exemptions for biofuels “would be a terrible mistake”, citing their poor carbon record and unintended impacts such as deforestation.
Europe’s embattled auto industry and its backers are ramping up pressure on the EU to relax its planned 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel car sales — hoping for a decision by year end.
The European Commission is due to review the target on December 10 as part of a broader rescue plan for the sector but competing demands from member states and industry risk forcing it to push back the date.
The goal of switching all new cars to electric by 2035 was set in 2023 as a flagship measure of the EU’s environmental Green Deal and a key step towards the bloc achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
But two years on, calls are mounting to revise the target in the name of “pragmatism”.
“Our sector has received the most stringent target as it was perceived to be one of the easiest to decarbonise,” the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said in a policy paper.
“But the reality has proven much more complicated.”
Meanwhile, Chinese carmakers are flooding the European market with cheaper electric models, sparking fears of an unprecedented crisis among the bloc’s manufacturers, with mass layoffs and factory closures looming.
“The ground is slipping beneath our feet,” the head of France’s Plateforme automotive industry group Luc Chatel warned last month, saying the sector was the victim of “political and dogmatic choices, not technological ones”.
– Germany, Italy push for exemptions –
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has emerged as a leading voice in support of carmakers, urging Brussels to allow sales of plug-in hybrids, range-extender vehicles and highly efficient combustion engines beyond 2035.
Italy wants new cars running on biofuels to remain legal after the deadline.
In the opposing camp, France wants to stick as closely as possible to the all-electric trajectory to safeguard massive investments already made by its carmakers.
“If we abandon the 2035 target, forget about European battery plants,” President Emmanuel Macron warned after an EU summit in October.
France is calling for EU support for battery production and proposing mandatory electrification of corporate fleets using European-made vehicles to avoid favouring Chinese brands. Germany opposes such fleet rules.
BMW chief Oliver Zipse argued in Brussels this week that making corporate fleets go fully electric would amount to bringing the combustion-engine ban “through the back door”.
Lucien Mathieu, of the Transport & Environment advocacy group, warned meanwhile that exemptions for biofuels “would be a terrible mistake”, citing their poor carbon record and unintended impacts such as deforestation.
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