Merkel's party receives BMW donation before EU carbon cap block

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party received a large donation from automaker BMW's controlling family before the German government blocked stricter European Union regulations on carbon dioxide emissions, according to parliamentary records released on Tuesday.

The Quandt family, who holds 46.7 percent of the shares in the Munich-based car maker, donated 690,000 euros (935,900 U.S. dollars) last week to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), according to a filing issued on the German parliament's website.

Due to German opposition, EU environment ministers on Monday delayed agreement on a planned Europe-wide cap on new vehicle emissions from 2020 that would force car makers to limit their vehicles' emissions to 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer.

Germany worries that the planned new rules would threat its car industry and wants to put off introducing the limit until 2024. The country is home of automobile giants including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen.

Merkel's party said in a statement that the Quandt family has supported the CDU with private donations for many years and there was no link between the donation and any single political decision.

The Quandt family's spokesman Joerg Appelhans also told local media that the donations are "in no way bound to industrial policies" and they are not involved in political talks about emission regulations.