BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The planned end for the registration of combustion cars in the EU could fail shortly before the conclusion because of the German blockade. Regardless of resistance from the German government, a vote on the ban on the registration of new gasoline and diesel cars from 2035 is to be held next Tuesday, according to a spokesman for the Swedish presidency of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) had recently threatened that Germany could not agree to the planned vote. In this case, the necessary majority could topple.

A vote of at least 15 countries representing at least 65 percent of the EU population is required. In fact, negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU states had already agreed in October that from 2035 only new cars that do not emit greenhouse gases during operation may be sold in the EU. Votes like the one on Tuesday are usually a formality.

Wissing justified his opposition by saying that the EU Commission had not yet submitted a proposal on how only vehicles fueled with climate-friendly fuels such as e-fuels can be registered after 2035. This was part of the agreement reached in the Council of EU States in June 2022, which persuaded the FDP to agree within the German government.

"We need e-fuels, because there is no alternative at all to operate our existing fleet in a climate-neutral way," Wissing said on ARD's "Morgenmagazin" on Wednesday. Anyone who is serious about climate-neutral mobility must keep all technological options open. That would include internal combustion engines that refuel e-fuels.

The German government said on Wednesday that it had not yet reached a unified position on the issue. Talks on the matter were still ongoing, said a spokesman for the Green-led Federal Environment Ministry. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said that on the issue of the use of e-fuels, the commission must now take action quickly.

Criticism of Wissing's stance came from the ranks of the Green Party. Bremen's mobility senator Maike Schaefer told the German Press Agency that the auto lobby was driving Wissing and the FDP before it. She said there was a compromise paper from the federal government with a test mandate for e-fuels. Wissing had no mandate for announcing that Germany could not agree to a phasing out of internal combustion engines, he said.

"The debate about using e-fuels in passenger cars is pure wishful thinking on the part of combustion fetishists, given the energy intensity involved in their production, despite all their faith in technology," Schaefer said. "The fact that the FDP is targeting this clientele of voters shows that it cares less and less about fighting the climate crisis in the face of dwindling votes."

The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), on the other hand, backed Wissing. "We need all climate-friendly technologies to achieve the EU climate targets," said VDA head Hildegard Müller. Because e-fuels are particularly important for the carbon footprint of already registered combustion engines, the debate must be reopened, she said. The ball is now in the Commission's court./jcf/DP/mis