Merkel blocked carbon law to save jobs

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday she blocked a draft european union law aimed at reducing carbon-dioxide emissions from cars over concerns the measure would cost jobs in the auto industry.

A coalition of eu states led by Germany prevented approval of the measure at a meeting of diplomats in Brussels earlier this week. Ms. Merkel said that she moved to delay the proposal — which would cap average carbon discharges by passenger vehicles in the bloc at 95 grams a kilometre in 2020 — to defend jobs.

“This is also about employment,” Ms. Merkel told reporters in Brussels after a european union summit. “That’s why we need time to review and evaluate and decide what

we will do. That’s why the vote didn’t happen.”

Ms. Merkel’s intervention, made less than three months before federal elections, collided with eu efforts to cap pollution by cars through varying targets for individual manufacturers ranging from Volkswagen AG to General Motors Co. Current eu legislation requires carmakers to cut discharges to 130 grams a kilometre on average in 2015 and sets a non-binding goal of 95 grams for 2020.

Ireland, representing the eu governments, and negotiators from the european Parliament reached a preliminary deal on the draft emissions law on June 24.

The proposal needs qualified-majority support from national governments. That failed to materialize at a twoday meeting of eu leaders billed as a jobs summit that ended Friday.

While the european Commission, the eu’s regulatory arm, said earlier Friday that it was disappointed about the delay, Ms. Merkel rebuffed any such criticism on economic grounds.

“At a time when we’re spending days sitting here talking about employment, we have to take care that, notwithstanding the need to make progress on environmental protection, we don’t weaken our own industrial base,” Ms. Merkel said.