The deal had been agreed in June by the European Parliament, the Commission and EU governments but Germany has repeatedly prevented a vote until it had 'reliable signs that there is enough support for its proposal' according to reports, instead calling for the limits to be phased in so they apply to all new cars from 2024. Now, countries including the UK, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary have backed scrapping the agreed deal.

The move has been criticised by environmental groups including NGO Transport & Environment. Greg Archer, clean vehicles manager of T&E, said: ‘These unprecedented, dirty deals will make cars less fuel-efficient and more polluting. It’s an unacceptable price, which will be paid by every European driver in higher fuel bills, by the planet that will warm quicker and potentially by Europe’s auto sector that will be less competitive. The deal struck in June was a reasonable political compromise. Now we go back to the drawing board.’

Rebecca Harms, co-president of the Germany Greens party, said: 'German Chancellor Merkel has ridden roughshod over the EU's democratic decision-making process by strong-arming other EU governments into reneging on this legislative agreement. What is the point of the EU's democratic legislative process if the German government can simply ignore the outcome and force through its will and its narrow national interest?

'The agreement reached between the EP and Council was already low on ambition. Weakening the agreed 2020 limits, which have long been known, is a shameful sop to German car manufacturers and will slow the development of new technologies to deliver more efficient and less polluting cars. Unfortunately, some in the European car industry continue to view climate protection and competitiveness as mutually exclusive rather than complementary.'  

Reuters reported that EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said she was disappointed and rejected the German proposal.

Having effectively rejected the June deal, Council must now decide what changes it wants to the previously agreed deal. This will then be sent to the European Commission and Parliament, which will consider the amended proposal.

‘In the upcoming negotiations with EU governments, the European Parliament should safeguard the environmental ambition of this law and re-table its proposals for a limit of 68g CO2/km by 2025. The Parliament should also strengthen testing of cars to protect drivers from misleading fuel economy figures delivered by BMW and other carmakers,’ Greg Archer concluded.