A draft report by Rapporteur MEP Massimiliano Salini (EPP/IT) on the revision of the EU’s CO₂ emission standards for passenger cars and vans was leaked by Contexte, ahead of its formal presentation in the European Parliament’s lead committee on Environment, Climate and Food Safety (ENVI). The leaked document, dated 6 May 2026, contains 45 amendments tabled by the rapporteur to the Commission’s proposal COM(2025)0995 – 2025/0420(COD), which amends Regulation (EU) 2019/631 on CO₂ emission performance standards for new light duty vehicles and on vehicle labelling, and repeals Directive 1999/94/EC. The document marks the starting point of the parliamentary negotiation process — and from a Power-to-X perspective, it represents a notable shift toward technology neutrality, regulatory flexibility and a clearer role for renewable and low-carbon fuels in road transport.

The Draft Report does not abolish the 2035 target, but it reshapes the path toward it in ways that would give synthetic fuels, advanced renewable fuels and clean industrial inputs a much more clearly defined place — and that would meaningfully revise the de facto ban on the internal combustion engine in the current regulation. Switzerland is already a step ahead on this point, having anchored technology openness in its current CO₂ Act (see SPIN Perspective below).

What the Draft Report Proposes

The leaked text contains a series of substantive amendments. The most relevant elements include:

A new vehicle class for vehicles running exclusively on eligible fuels (VEEF). The Draft Report introduces VEEF as a recognised vehicle category, to be operationalised via empowerment through a Delegated Act. Crucially, VEEF would be included in the Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) definition — a long-debated regulatory step that would put vehicles running solely on qualifying renewable and synthetic fuels on equal footing with battery-electric vehicles for compliance purposes. From a lifecycle perspective, vehicles running on renewable e-fuels can already today achieve lower overall CO₂ emissions than comparable battery-electric vehicles.

A broader scope of eligible fuels. Rather than narrowing the definition to a single fuel pathway, the Draft Report aligns the scope of eligible fuels with the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). This opens the door to a wider set of renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs, including e-fuels from green hydrogen and captured CO₂), advanced biofuels and other RED-compliant fuels.

A fuel-credit mechanism brought forward and strengthened. The cap on fuel credits is not removed, but raised to 10%. Combined with the proposed reduced mileage assumptions and the broadened pool of eligible fuels, the 10% ceiling could realistically be reached in the relatively near term. Double counting between fuel credits and VEEFs is explicitly prevented, addressing one of the key integrity concerns of the previous debate.

Restored flexibilities for manufacturers. Several restrictions, including those on pooling, would be deleted. All flexibilities would become available immediately upon entry into force, rather than being phased in.

A fundamentally reshaped 2035 fleet picture. Compared to the existing regulation, which effectively bans the internal combustion engine from 2035 onward, the Draft Report would leave approximately 10% of the fleet target unregulated in 2035, while introducing up to 17% of maximum flexibilities (7% low-carbon steel credits and 10% fuel credits) on top of the contribution from VEEFs. In practical terms, roughly a third of new vehicles could still feature a (hybrid) combustion engine in 2035 — a clear departure from the previously envisioned 100% tailpipe-zero approach for new vehicle registrations.

Where the Process Stands

The Draft Report formally opens the negotiation process in the lead ENVI Committee. The text will now be discussed in the relevant committees, and other MEPs will have the opportunity to table amendments until 10 June. Votes are not expected before November, and discussions in the Council of the EU are taking place in parallel along the same lines.

It is important to keep in mind that a Draft Report is just that: a starting point. The text will be challenged, refined, and likely changed before ENVI adopts its position and the file moves into plenary and inter-institutional negotiations. Nothing in the leaked document is final.

SPIN Perspective

For SPIN — the Swiss Power-to-X Collaborative Innovation Network — the leaked Draft Report is a constructive signal on several fronts. The explicit recognition of a VEEF vehicle class within the ZEV definition addresses a structural regulatory gap that has long disadvantaged Power-to-Liquid pathways and e-fuel-only vehicles. Anchoring the definition of eligible fuels in the Renewable Energy Directive provides legal coherence with the broader EU climate and energy framework, and it gives green hydrogen-based synthetic fuels a credible route into the road transport regulation.

Taken together, the proposed VEEF recognition, the strengthened fuel-credit mechanism with explicit anti-double-counting safeguards, and the restored manufacturer flexibilities reflect a regulatory philosophy that focuses on the climate outcome rather than on a single technology. For an open economy like Switzerland’s, integrated with EU markets and reliant on the same vehicle fleet, this matters: a technology-neutral framework with credible integrity rules creates room for Power-to-X innovation, for industrial investment in e-fuels and green hydrogen value chains, and for consumer choice — without weakening the underlying climate ambition.

Switzerland, notably, is already ahead of the EU on this point. Article 11a of the current Swiss CO₂ Act establishes technology openness at the level of fleet regulation: car importers can freely choose how to reduce their fleet emissions — whether by placing battery-electric vehicles on the market or by using e-fuels. The Swiss framework is therefore already aligned with the outcome-oriented climate policy that the Salini Draft Report is now proposing for the EU. The remaining obstacles on the way to fully effective, outcome-oriented climate action in Switzerland are no longer of a fundamental nature, but lie in specific provisions of the implementing ordinances that unnecessarily — and in our view not plausibly justified — make the e-fuels pathway more expensive. SPIN is in ongoing dialogue with the relevant Swiss authorities to address these implementation details, so that the technology openness already anchored in Swiss law can fully unfold its climate impact.

SPIN will continue to follow the file closely as it moves through ENVI, plenary and the Council. The next weeks — up to the 10 June amendment deadline — and the subsequent months leading to a vote expected no earlier than November will be decisive for shaping the final balance between ambition, flexibility and technology neutrality in the EU’s most consequential piece of road transport climate legislation.

For media enquiries or further information, please contact SPIN: Tel +41 79 628 61 26 · E-Mail info@power-to-x.swiss · Web www.power-to-x.swiss