The German government has reached an agreement with the EU Commission in the dispute over the future of cars with combustion engines. This was announced by Transport Minister Volker Wissing and EU Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans on Saturday. The agreement was reached late yesterday evening, Wissing said. The way has been cleared for vehicles with combustion engines that fill up exclusively with climate-neutral fuels to be re-registered after 2035. According to Wissing, concrete procedural steps and a concrete timetable were bindingly fixed. "We want the process to be completed by autumn 2024."

Timmermans wrote on Twitter: "We have reached an agreement with Germany on the future use of e-fuels in cars." We will now work to ensure that the regulation on CO2 standards for cars is adopted as soon as possible.

The European Parliament and EU member states had already agreed in October that only emission-free new cars may be registered in the EU from 2035. For Germany, however, it is important that new cars with combustion engines that fill up with e-fuels – i.e. climate-neutral artificial fuels generated with green electricity – can still be registered afterwards. A confirmation of the agreement by the EU member states scheduled for the beginning of March was therefore initially prevented by Germany. Since then, the Federal Ministry of Transport and the EU Commission have been negotiating a compromise.

Many EU partners had reacted irritated to Germany's behaviour in the dispute. On Thursday, for example, Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins spoke on the sidelines of the EU summit in front of running cameras of a "very, very difficult sign for the future". It is surprising that a government suddenly decides differently after an agreement has already been reached.

Karins warned, "The entire architecture of decision-making would fall apart if we all did that." Behind closed doors, diplomats in Brussels were more explicit. They accuse Germany of a breach of trust.