Carmakers To Brussels: Deregulate or We Go Bust

The Eurocrats are upset with Trump's tariffs, but their "Green" Agenda is likely more responsible for the decline of the automotive industry.

From The European Conservative

By Michael Curzon

The Commission’s attachment to its ideological Green Deal is harming carmakers, who are pushing for a radical overhaul of regulations.

Brussels officials are shaking their fists at Donald Trump’s tariffs on cars despite their own significant role in the decline of Europe’s automaker industry.

Indeed, fears of forced plant closures have this week united Renault CEO Luca de Meo and Stellantis Chairman John Elkann in their criticism of overregulation by the European Union. The pair told French paper Le Figaro in a joint interview that Brussels should adopt more favourable rules for small cars in particular.

They called on France, Italy, and Spain—where small cars are most popular—to campaign for regulation cuts which the publication described as both “radical and rapid.” De Meo said:

There are too many rules designed for bigger and more expensive cars, which means we can’t make smaller cars in acceptable profitability conditions.

Spanish economist and former MEP Luis Garicano stressed that Brussels is currently “killing EU industry through overregulation.”

German MEP Jens Gieseke also last month noted that the EU’s Green Deal “has been in the centre” of many regulatory pushes harming carmakers, telling The Parliament publication:

This is a very one-sided and, in a way, an ideological approach, and it’s a great harm to the [automotive] industry.

Sweden Democrats MEP Beatrice Timgren told the European Parliament on Tuesday it was time to “overhaul” unreasonable climate policies as a whole:

Away with symbolic politics that lack public support and harm our citizens and businesses. We need more innovation, technology, and global solutions that actually make a difference.

Stellantis’s Elkann warned in his interview alongside de Meo that “at this rate, if the trajectory does not change, we will have to make some painful decisions for our production base over the next three years.”