France, Germany say car emissions talks continue

BRDO (Reuters) - France and Germany are continuing talks on how to share between car makers an EU-proposed mandatory target on carbon emissions from cars, French and German government officials said on Saturday.

The head of Germany's VDA carmakers' lobby, Matthias Wissmann, said on Friday the talks were deadlocked, confirming unnamed German government officials.

But bilateral talks were continuing between France and Germany, said Germany's environment minister Sigmar Gabriel on the fringes of an April 11-12 informal environment ministers' meeting in Slovenia.

"Of course this continues. It would be crazy if we just wouldn't come together in environmental policy."

"We have to set ambitious goals for small and medium sized cars as well, not only for the big ones, that's about it. We want to have a decision during the (EU) French presidency (from July)."

He said he wanted compromise on the level of fines for non-compliance.

The EU executive Commission last December proposed a binding car emissions limit across Europe of an average 120 grams per kilometer across the fleet from 2012, compared to about 160 g/km now, after the car industry broke voluntary limits.

The French-German bilateral talks have dominated a debate on how to carve the target between manufacturers, with those in Germany wanting the burden to reflect the higher emissions of their heavier cars compared to those in France.

A senior French environment ministry official confirmed that talks were going on.