Brussels Edition

EU’s Climate Ambitions Face Carmakers’ Reality

The EU’s green plans are running into the economic imperative of keeping the bloc competitive.
Used Audi cars at an Audi automobile dealership in Berlin, Germany.Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

Welcome to the Brussels Edition. I’m Suzanne Lynch, Bloomberg’s Brussels bureau chief, bringing you the latest from the EU each weekday. Make sure you’re signed up.

It’s long been a tricky balancing act for the European Union – how to square its ambition to be a leader on climate action with the need to jumpstart the bloc’s competitiveness. Today it seems that Brussels has settled for the latter.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is weighing a five-year delay to its effective ban on the combustion engine, John Ainger and Ewa Krukowska report this morning.