The European Commission is set to decide this week whether to propose tough new emissions limits on new car models after the automotive industry failed to meet voluntary targets.
EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas is eager to set limits on new passenger cars, but needs the backing of his colleagues in the EU's executive arm to go ahead with the proposal.
Dimas would like to see a new EU law requiring European, Japanese and Korean carmakers to keep emissions from new passenger cars to an average of 120 grams per kilometer traveled from 2012.
The commission is to put several options on the table to reach the target, but the preference is for binding limits, several EU officials said.
However, the issue is not closed and will only be decided on Wednesday by all 27 commissioners during their weekly meeting, the spokesman for EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen stressed.
The German commissioner, who is more favorable towards carmakers and is cool about binding limits, prefers an "integrated approach," where the responsibility for reducing emissions is shared.
He wants tire and fuel companies to also play a part in reaching the 120 grams per kilometer target.
"We should take climate change into account, but also consumers' interests and companies' competitiveness," Verheugen told French business daily Les Echos in an interview published on Friday.
"Let's not forget that luxury cars are one of the strong points of the EU's exports," he said.
"There will not be a legislative proposal from the commission this year," Verheugen added.
Road transport creates more than 20 percent of all CO2 emissions in the EU, with half of that coming from passenger cars.
European, Japanese and Korean automakers have failed to meet a voluntary target to cut average emissions for new cars sold in Europe to 25 percent of 1995 levels.
The commission says that they have only reached 12.4 percent, which the EU executive describes as "not satisfactory."
The industry says that if the targets have not been met it is not their fault, blaming instead "strong customer demand for larger and safer vehicles and disappointing consumer acceptance of extremely fuel-efficient cars."
A study by the European Federation for Transport and Environment found in October that three-quarters of the 20 major car brands sold in Europe had failed to improve fuel efficiency at the rate needed to meet the voluntary target.
Only Fiat, Citroen, Renault, Ford and Peugeot were on track to meet it.
While the deal for the voluntary targets included an agreement not to disclose the performance of individual companies in cutting down emissions, the report named and shamed Volkswagen.
The company, Europe's biggest car brand in terms of sales, was singled out for its poor performance, improving its fuel efficiency at less than half the rate needed, according to the study.
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