"Porsche is in the clear as soon as a holding company with Volkswagen emerges," Guenter Verheugen told the magazine Capital in an interview posted on its website ahead of full publication on Thursday.

"The Polo could therefore counterbalance the the Porsche 911," he added in reference to Volkswagen's compact model and the trademark sports car made by Porsche.

The EU Commission is drafting a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by cars to 120 grams per kilometer by 2012, along with a system of fines in case the level is surpassed.

But that level might in the end represent an average for all vehicles produced by an automaker rather than apply to each one they produce.

Porsche is already the biggest shareholder in VW, the biggest European car maker, and intends to take a majority holding at some point, bringing both groups under the control of a single holding company.

That could allow it to meet an emissions limit applied across the entire range of models, while German rivals like BMW and Mercedes Benz might face penalties owing to their product lines of powerful cars that emit more CO2.

The EU project has been criticized in Germany as favouring manufacturers in France and Italy that generally produce smaller cars.

Verheugen, who is German, told Capital the EU legislation must "preserve an entire range of products within the European Union."

He also expressed opposition to a proposed "energy account" for each EU citizen.

"Otherwise we could all drive Trabis," he quipped in reference to a car formerly produced in eastern Germany that had a small, but heavily polluting engine.

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