BRUSSELS, July 15 (Reuters) - Italy and Spain are

backing European Union tariffs on imports of China-built

electric vehicles, government sources said ahead of a Monday

midnight deadline for all 27 EU members to take their stand on

the matter.

The vote is non-binding, but it could influence the final

conclusion of the European Commission, which oversees the bloc's

trade policy. It set provisional duties of up to 37.6% on EVs

imported from China, ratcheting up tensions with Beijing.

The EU executive is canvassing EU governments' views in an

"advisory" vote, which the Commission is expected to take into

account when deciding whether to follow up with definitive

duties in what is the EU's highest profile trade case yet.

The Commission says the vote is confidential and it will not

disclose the outcome.

Government sources said on Monday that Italy had voted in

favour and that Spain would do the same in their written

submissions. Sweden plans to abstain, trade minister Johan

Forssell told Reuters. Germany is also set to abstain, sources

said on Friday. One of them said this was in the spirit of

"critical solidarity" with the Commission.

A number of EU governments have been

hesitating

.

Poland's development ministry said Warsaw's position was

still the subject of consultations between ministries. Greece

had yet to take a position as of Saturday.

A decade ago, the EU executive did not impose tariffs on

Chinese solar panels after it became clear that a large group of

EU members did not support them. EU manufacturing subsequently

collapsed.

The Commission will continue its investigation and determine

whether to propose definitive duties that would typically apply

for five years.

If it does push for tariffs, they will come up for a binding

vote among the EU members, and would be blocked if a qualified

majority of 15 member countries representing 65% of the EU

population vote against.

The near-four month window before then will allow Brussels

and Beijing to negotiate a possible resolution to tariffs that

would hit Chinese producers such as BYD, Geely and SAIC and

Western automakers such as Tesla and BMW. Beijing has threatened

wide-ranging retaliation.