Czechia and Italy call on EU to ease sanctions in automotive industry

Czechia and Italy, with the support of other member states, are calling on the European Union to ease sanctions to be applied from next year that would fine car manufacturers that do not sell a sufficient share of electric cars, ČTK has reported. This call involves a so-called ‘non-paper’, an informal document, which representatives of Prague and Rome will present at Thursday’s meeting of EU industry ministers in Brussels. The two-page document states that "the competitiveness of the European automotive industry must remain a central point of EU policy”, and is supported by Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Czechia sent its proposal to individual European countries in October and subsequently agreed on a joint approach with Italy. According to some experts, there is not as much interest in electric cars as originally expected because individual countries have not created favourable conditions for their use. Critics of Brussels' approach also claim that if carmakers have to pay fines, they will not have the money to invest in the development of new electric cars.