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A deal has been done on the law to restrict the carbon output of cars sold in Europe. But is it an "empty deal", a noble aspiration savaged by the short-sighted and selfish car industry and car-producing countries, as some environmentalists believe? Or is it "good for industry, good for the environment and good for jobs," as the Socialists say?

It's not yet written in stone. The European Parliament has to vote on it, and so do ministers from the EU's 27 countries. But the deal between senior MEPs and the French presidency is likely to hold because it has the backing of both big political groups in the parliament of left and right.

The Conservative MEP Martin Callanan, who was part of the negotiations, rejected one possible compromise last week but now says: "The deal we have struck represents the best of both worlds. We have shown we can encourage car manufacturers to go green by including incentives for investment in clean technology, but without driving them out of business".

So what has been agreed?

A target of reducing CO2 emissions to an average of 120 grams per kilometre driven by 2012 would be introduced in stages: for example only 65% of new cars need meet this target by 2012. The final target date is now 2015.

A sliding scale of fines that reaches the maximum penalty, 95 euros (£79) per gram over the limit, in 2019.

A long-term but non-binding target of cars producing no more that 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre travelled by 2020.

Environmentalists argue this is very much watered-down, compared to at the start of the whole tortuous process.

The German Green MEP Rebecca Harms has told me that the European Union will end up with a 2012 target that is higher than the actual average produced today. "It is grossly misleading to suggest that these measures will address the impact of cars on the climate."

Should the big power blocs of left and right be proud of a rounded, balanced package - or ashamed of a sell-out?

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