The EU has bowed to pressure from German Chancellor Angela Merkel to postpone an agreement on tough curbs for exhaust emissions that have been fiercely contested by carmakers in Europe’s largest economy.
The delay is the latest EU policy hold-up that diplomats attribute to Berlin’s focus on parliamentary elections scheduled for September 22. Progress towards eurozone integration, on the agenda of a two-day EU summit in Brussels that started yesterday, has also been scaled down after pressure from Germany.
Officials from the European Parliament and national governments on Monday agreed legislation on emissions curbs, and the deal was to have been endorsed by EU governments on the sidelines of the summit yesterday.