Emma McClarkin MEP fights “fanatical” EU ban on petrol and diesel cars

East Midlands MEP Emma McClarkin is telling Brussels transport chiefs to think again over a scheme to ban all petrol and diesel cars from city centres.

The scheme, outlined in a European Commission policy document on future transport, calls for a 50 per cent reduction in the number of conventionally-fuelled cars allowed in city centres by 2030 – followed by a complete ban 20 years later. It says instead commuters and residents should all use public transport or “appropriate new vehicles” such as electric cars.

But the plan was condemned as “dictatorial and fanatical” by East Midlands Conservative MEP Emma McClarkin.

Emma said:

“The truth is we don’t know what town-centre transport will look like in the middle of the century; but it is typical of the European Commission that it wants to lay down the law now and tell us what we can and cannot drive.

“Electric cars will become popular when they make sense to motorists in terms of economy, comfort and convenience – not before. Issues like this need to be determined at national level – not by an edict from Brussels.”

The white paper – grandly-titled ‘Roadmap for the Future of Transport 2050’ – was drawn up by EU transport commissioner Sim Kallas and calls for a ‘Single European Transport Area’.

As well as the ban on conventional motors, it proposes a 50 per cent shift in middle distance journeys (above 186 miles) from road to rail to reduce congestion. It also purports to show how the EU could achieve a 40 per cent cut in shipping emissions and a 40 per cent use of low carbon fuels in aviation to reduce environmental impact without reducing mobility.

Published earlier this year, the report says the package as a whole would cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent.

It goes on: “The gradual phasing out of ‘conventionally-fuelled’ vehicles from the urban environment is a major contribution to significant reduction of oil dependence, greenhouse gas emissions and local air and noise pollution. It will have to be complemented by the development of appropriate fuelling/charging infrastructure for new vehicles.”

But Emma said: “The idea of banning the internal combustion engine completely is dictatorial. The report reads like one long, fanatical wish-list.”