The EU’s ambitious Green Deal
with its ban on new vehicles with internal combustion engines, including
hybrids, by 2035, would hit the Czech economy particularly hard. The country,
which is home to Volkswagen Group's Skoda brand, depends on the auto industry
for more than a quarter of its industrial output and the car production sector
employs almost 700,000 people directly and indirectly.
Prime Minister Fiala argued that
in addition to damaging the car industry and the country’s competitiveness the
enforced switch to electric mobility would damage end-users, because the
majority of Czechs could simply not afford to make the switch by the set target
date.
“This would present
an existential threat to many people for whom a car is not a luxury but a basic
necessity which is essential to their everyday life; they need it for their
work, to get to work, or simply to visit family and friends.”
While the new cabinet sees the
transition to clean energy sources as inevitable in the long run, it is against
enforcing it before the member states are prepared to handle the change. Deputy
Prime Minister Vít Rakušan stressed that the transition should not impoverish
member states.
“Setting a firm
deadline at this point seems unnecessary. The market will also play a role in
making the transition happen. But right now for most people in this country
electric powered vehicles are a luxury.”
The car industry in the Czech
Republic involves both direct manufacture of cars in Skoda plants and the
production of spare parts in the Toyota and Hyundai factories. At present, the
production is very focused on internal combustion engines and while
theoretically, the plants could continue producing cars for export to
countries outside the EU, Volkswagen Group would most likely move them further
east.
As for the plants producing spare
parts, there is a risk that these companies too would curb or shut down
operations, because electric cars have fewer parts. While the Czech industry
could partially compensate for this decline in the inevitable boom in the
battery technology sector, that too would require time.
The Czech prime minister said his
government would fight to get the Green Deal revised and would seek allies in
the EU to boost its position. The issue is certain to be one of the top
priorities when the country assumes the EU's rotating presidency in the second
half of 2022 and is likely to intensify cooperation within the Visegrad Group
states which have a similar position on the Green Deal. In addition to opposing
the 2035 ban on combustion engines, they want nuclear power to be an accepted
part of the EU’s future energy mix.
The
material was brought up by employees of CzechTrade Scandinavia.
Using
the source: Daniela Lazarová, Radio Prague International
Photo: Archive CzechTrade