Italy abstains on EU stop to gas-engine cars, to ask for bio-fuels

(ANSA) - ROME, MAR 28 - Italy on Tuesday abstained in an EU vote that OK'd the end of the sale of petrol and diesel powered cars in 2035 and Rome said it would ask for the use of biofuels to continue beyond that date as a partial remedy for its motorists.
    Rome and some other EU members including Poland and Bulgaria had fought against the ban on gas engine powered car sales from 2035, and it was ratified Tuesday by a majority of EU energy ministers.
    After the vote, Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto said the Italian government would work to get biofuels included among carbon neutral fuels to cushion the impact of the halt to gas engine car sales.
    Italy abstained in the vote on the final ratification of the EU agreement on the 2035 phase-out of petrol- and diesel-fuelled combustion engines, according to the final report of the vote in the Energy Council. Along with Rome, Bulgaria and Poland also abstained on the agreement ratified by a majority of EU ministers. The only vote against was cast by Poland.
    Germany, on the other hand, was in favour, following the agreement on the future use of e-fuels reached over the weekend with the European Commission.
    After the vote, Pichetto said: "We will endeavour, within the framework of the approval procedures for the legislative acts indicated by the European Commission, to have biofuels also considered among the CO2-neutral fuels.
    "We consider that the provision in the Commission's statement of only synthetic fuels is too restrictive an interpretation," he added. (ANSA).