Tomorrow, the three EU institutions will start trilogue (made up from the 3 political institutions of the EU - the parliament, the council and the commission) negotiations on the cars proposal. This is the stage where the deal is finally hammered out ready to be enshrined in law.

The Commission and Parliament have insisted that carmakers reach 130 grams in 2012, up ten grams from the original objective of 120 grams. But EU governments gathered in Council decided that no reductions should be required by 2012, and penalties to back up the requirements after 2015 should be low enough for carmakers to pay them rather than comply.

So what will Council, represented by the French Presidency, put on the table in the talks?

• From 2016, penalties of €95 per g for car makers who fail to meet their target. But if they miss their target by a small margin only, they'll only have to pay €25. For cars with CO2 emissions under 130 g/km, this penalty may be reduced even more to €20.

• The phase in (remember that's a delay by another name) is still on the table. Under these proposals in 2012 only 60% of the fleet needs to meet the target, rising to 100 in 2015.

You know what we think about the phase in - the car makers get to put their feet up and do virtually nothing while climate change continues to wreak havoc with the planet.

The word is that governments, having presented the German carmakers with more lenient targets, are now trying to pacify the Italians who have to make up for this. Under the proposals, Fiat would have to cut their emissions to 122 grams, while BMW would have to cut to just 137 grams. The Italians are now demanding lower penalties to pay their way out. ..

• And though a long term goal will be set for 2020, we still don't know what it will be. It's subject to a "thorough impact assessment" and will "be fixed, before 2013, close to 95 grams".

But the question is how close? With the car industry getting more time to put their case to keep gas guzzling cars in production, the arguments are set to go on for years.