Our Goals
The Automotive Regions Alliance aims to ensure that the sustainable transformation of road transport and the automotive sector in the EU leaves no region behind.
The Alliance calls for action from the EU to achieve the following:
- Urgently establish a
European mechanism supporting a just, fair and successful transition for Europe's automotive and supply industry regions, including by streamlining
dedicated additional budget headings into the various European funds and programmes.
- Undertake a detailed
territorial impact assessment (at regional level) of the consequences of the transformation in the automotive sector as a starting point for the just transition framework, including
granular mapping of the impact on regional growth and jobs.
- Address common challenges and opportunities for regions and SMEs with regard to the
automotive supply chain industry, which will be particularly affected by the drive-train transition.
- Support
reskilling and upskillingthe (regional) workforce in order to avoid job losses in our regions. We need to monitor the supply and demand of relevant skills and anticipate future demands in close cooperation with the EU-wide framework of the
Pact for Skills, and especially with the
Automotive Skills Alliance.
- Further develop a strong research framework for
industrial transformation and innovation in the European automotive industry, increasing the resilience of the supply chain for strategic and critical raw materials.
- Provide for flexibility
in State aid guidelines (including the block exemption regulation) to enable automotive regions to guide and manage this transformation and avoid its negative effects. Supporting measures for local and regional authorities to accelerate the uptake of
innovative technologies through public procurement should also be provided for.
- Support regions to deploy
publicly accessible refuelling and recharging stations to promote the uptake of electric vehicles and vehicles that use zero- and low-carbon alternative fuels. It is imperative for territorial and social cohesion that these stations be available in all regions and interoperable across borders.
-
Concentrate available public and private investment funds on the various technological solutions (e.g. electrification, hydrogen technologies and synthetic fuels) to ensure the European automotive industry's competitiveness and innovation.
- Establish a
multi-level governance and partnership approach to this transition for appropriate and effective policy planning, budgetary action, and dialogue with all stakeholders and public authorities at all levels, including the European Commission, Council and European Parliament.
- Support this alliance as the main
openplatform for coordination of automotive and supply regions, so that they can work together at regional, national and European level, and in close cooperation with existing initiatives in order to make the transition a success.
Governance Structure
Chair region: Saxony
Co-chair regions: Navarra (next chair region) and Lombardy
The work of the Alliance is guided by the chair and co-chair regions and defined in the work programme. They represent the Alliance on political level and they are responsible for the Annual Conference of the Alliance – where the next chair and co-chair regions are decided.
All member regions are represented at working level in the ARA "Sherpa group". The European Committee of the Regions' COTER Commission chair is the political representation of the CoR in the ARA, while the technical secretariat is organised by the CoR.