Following the publication on 5 March of the European Commission's Automotive Action Plan, ECR President Marco Marsilio stated that it only "partially meets the sector's demands" adding that the ECR Group regrets the blatant lack of progress on "technological neutrality, biofuels, and on the 2035 diesel and combustion engine vehicles ban".

While Mr Marsilio welcomes the plan to move the review of the Co2 emissions regulation to 2025, as requested both by the Italian government, "thanks to the work of Minister Urso" and formalised in Mr Marsilio's CoR opinion on the Just Transition, he emphasised that although it is a small step in the right direction, the text lacks concrete commitments and is "still too little to revive the sector". 

President Marsilio reiterated that a future review of the CO2 regulation simply cannot ignore the crucial principle of technological neutrality, which must allow alternative fuels such as biofuels, otherwise "we risk undermining the economic competitiveness of an entire sector". 

Although the ECR Group acknowledges the proposal to enable car manufacturers to meet their compliance targets by averaging their performance over a three-year period (from 2025 to 2027), postponing costly fees that would have been fatal for the future of the industry, "more work needs to be done to move away from an ideological approach, which continues to dominate, toward pragmatism".