German parties agree on 'cleaner' car engines as coalition talks progress

By Markus Wacket and Andreas Rinke

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's would-be coalition partners have committed to supporting cleaner combustion engines with possible hardware refits, draft documents showed on Wednesday, signalling further progress in talks about power-sharing.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats are in intensive though still exploratory talks on a range of policy areas a day before they decide whether to move on to formal negotiations on establishing a new government, more than three months after an election setback for both.

A weakened Merkel turned to the wary Social Democrats (SPD) to seek a re-run of their so-called "grand coalition" after the collapse in November of talks on a three-way tie-up involving smaller parties untested at national level.

The chancellor, who has won widespread respect abroad in more than 12 years in power, needs the coalition talks to succeed to avoid her personal authority being further undermined and Germany's international standing diminished.

As Europe's largest economy and pre-eminent power broker, Germany is crucial to the region's fortunes. Berlin's partners are awaiting a new German government to help propel Brexit talks, euro zone reform and EU diplomatic initiatives.

Participants struck a positive note, with Bavarian conservative Peter Ramsauer telling reporters there was a 70 percent chance of striking a deal to pursue formal talks.

A working group paper seen by Reuters stated that the parties want Germany to achieve its climate targets, requiring various measures including support for electric vehicles and public transport.

It also made clear that they are committed to cleaner, more efficient combustion engines which may mean hardware modifications. This would be a far more expensive option than software upgrades already agreed with powerful carmakers.

The proposal is, however, less ambitious than plans made by other countries, such as France and Britain, which have set dates to ban diesel engines.

The German auto industry, which employs 800,000 people, has invested heavily in diesel over the last couple of decades.

The paper also showed the parties would set up a German-French centre to develop artificial intelligence.

The parties' finance experts are discussing the cost of measures already agreed and the Rheinische Post daily reported that spending wishes so far amounted to some 100 billion euros, way over the 45 billion euros available for the period to 2021.

COMPROMISE

So far, documents show conservative and SPD negotiators have agreed on rules to attract skilled immigrants, dropped plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels, and approved some tax measures

The talks between Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU) and SPD are due to conclude on Thursday, before SPD leaders recommend to their members whether they should shift into official negotiations.

SPD leaders, who need to convince their party members in a vote on Jan. 21 on whether to proceed, are playing hardball.

The leader of the Jusos youth branch of the SPD told broadcaster ARD that a deal between the coalition negotiators to drop CO2 emissions goals "was not a good start to these talks".

Kevin Kuehnert told Der Spiegel Online there was a good chance party members would reject any plans for a "grand coalition".

"I am very optimistic for the conference: We can still block the grand coalition," Spiegel quoted him as saying.

Merkel has ruled with the SPD in a sometimes awkward grand coalition in two of her three previous terms in office, including in the last parliament from 2013-2017. But both parties bled support in the Sept. 24 election, which saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) enter the Bundestag (national parliament) for the first time.

Many in the SPD rank-and-file oppose a repeat of the grand coalition as they fear it will further diminish the identity of the party, which suffered its worst result in September's vote since 1933. Some SPD members are also concerned that a new grand coalition would make the AfD the main opposition party.

Two of the toughest areas to agree on will be policies on euro zone reform, with the SPD stronger advocates of deeper integration, and migrants, especially over whether family members should be allowed to join asylum seekers in Germany.

Should the two biggest party groups fail to agree on moving ahead, Merkel could try to form a minority government, or Germany could face new elections.

(Additional reporting by Holger Hansen and Paul Carrel; Writing by Paul Carrel and Madeline Chambers; editing by Mark Heinrich)