EU ban on CO2 cars is 'self-destructive', Italy's Meloni says

ROME (Reuters) -Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday the European Union's 2035 target to end the sale of carbon-dioxide (CO2) emitting cars shows a "self-destructive" position on industrial and environmental issues.

"The ban on endothermic engine (cars) from 2035 is one of the most obvious examples of a self-destructive approach," Meloni told an event in Rome.

"Accompanying the industrial sector in the challenge of ecological transition cannot mean dismantling entire sectors," she said.

In March 2023, EU countries approved a landmark law that will require all new cars to have zero CO2 emissions from 2035, effectively banning diesel and petrol vehicles, and 55% lower CO2 emissions from 2030, compared to 2021 levels.

The EU measure was meant to speed up the electrification of the auto industry, but several automakers have recently started to scale down their electric vehicle (EV) roll-out plans due to poor demand.

Meloni and her allies have always opposed the ban on internal combustion engines, but at the time of the EU decision, her government abstained on it along with Bulgaria and Romania, while Poland was the only country to vote against.

(Reporting by Angelo Amante, Giuseppe Fonte, Marta Didonfrancesco and Alberto Chiumento, editing by Gavin Jones and Tomasz Janowski)