Von der Leyen: strategic dialogue on automobiles beginning in January | EUROtoday

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BRUSSELS – The strategic dialogue on the way forward for the automotive business, already introduced by the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, will start in January. The announcement got here on the top of the European summit. On this event, Brussels confirmed that the train may result in an replace of the European regulatory framework. Some deadlines of the Green Pact are criticized and specifically the ban on petrol and diesel automobiles.

«The automotive business is a supply of European satisfaction and is prime to Europe’s prosperity – wrote the president in a press release -. It is the engine of innovation, helps tens of millions of jobs and is the biggest personal investor in analysis and improvement (…) We should assist this sector within the profound and disruptive transition that awaits us (…) This is why I’ve referred to as for a strategic dialogue on the way forward for the European automotive business”.

The sector is in dire straits, grappling with Chinese competition, the transition to electric, stringent environmental regulations, and uncertain demand. The European automotive industry accounts for 7% of the European gross domestic product, employs, directly and indirectly, 13 million people and recorded a commercial surplus of 107 billion euros in 2023. Brussels’ initiative was announced in November.

Concretely, the dialogue will bring together car manufacturers, their suppliers, and the social partners. A first conference will be chaired by Mrs von der Leyen. Other thematic conferences will be chaired by the responsible commissioners. The exercise will end with some recommendations. Asked yesterday to understand when they might be published, a Commission spokeswoman could not give further details.

Among other things, the exercise must serve to incentivize innovation and digitalisation of the sector; support its decarbonisation, “with an open technological method”; handle employment, abilities and different social parts of the sector; «simplify and modernize the regulatory framework»; enhance demand; «strengthen the monetary sources of the sector in addition to its resilience (…) in an more and more aggressive world».