International

“My congratulations go to the environment, my condolences to the car industry lobby” says SP Euro-MP Kartika Liotard in reaction to Thursday morning's vote in the European Parliament's Environment Committee. The SP was in favour of a standard emissions limit for new cars of 120 grams of CO2 per kilometre.

Flat tyre

It was tense and tight, but the vote this morning went in favour of the compromise level of 130 grams, which was acceptable to the SP. “The powerful car industry was urging a still higher limit, and a delay in its introduction to 2015, as well as lower fines for transgressions and a number of other dilutions,” Kartika Liotard explains. “The Environment Committee has given the car industry a flat tyre, but flat tyres can be changed. At the vote in the Parliament plenary at the end of the year the industry will again be out in force. The SP will be sticking to our demand for 120 grams, but this is a result to be cherished.”