BRUSSELS -- Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania want to delay a European Union plan to effectively ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars starting in 2035 by five years, according to a document seen by Reuters.
The policy is a key pillar of the EU's plans to tackle rising transport emissions and speed the shift to electric vehicles, as the bloc strives to cut economy-wide net greenhouse gas emissions 55 percent by 2030, from 1990 levels.
The car emissions proposal, made by the European Commission last year, would require a 100 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from new cars by 2035, making it impossible to sell fuel-powered vehicles in the EU from that date.