Poland will haul the law on combustion engine phaseout before the EU Court of Justice, as announced by Climate Minister Anna Moskwa on Tuesday, adding that the ban on combustion cars from 2035 is unprofitable for all the European economies.
Under the Fit for 55 Package and the law voted on earlier this spring, the EU will ban the sale of new cars with combustion engines, the provisions that the Polish government opposes, even if Warsaw agreed to the 2050 climate neutrality target in 2020.
“The solutions regarding a ban of combustion cars from 2035 is unprofitable for all the European economies,” Moskwa told Radio Zet, citing a lack of sufficient analysing of the social and economic impact of the new law.
Poland “is going to the Court of Justice with this and many other Fit For 55 documents,” she said, adding that the appeal will be prepared in the following days and expressing her hope that other countries will join.
According to Moskwa, Poland counts on the CJEU to rule the law void due to wrong legal and formal basis, namely qualified majority voting in the Council, instead of unanimous, which Warsaw believes was against the rules.
Poland belonged to a broader coalition of countries, including Germany, that expressed reservations against the ban on new combustion engine sales. Still, Berlin was mostly seeking an exemption to be made for e-fuels engines, a demand that the European Commission ultimately agreed on.
At the end of the day, Poland was the only country to vote against the law as Bulgaria, Italy and Romania, who demanded a similar exemption for biofuels, abstained from the vote.
Poland’s appeal will not suspend the EU law, and it has little chance of success, according to Professor Robert Grzeszczak from Warsaw University. “It is a step for internal purposes,” he argued.
(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)
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