Newly adopted EU regulation on vehicle emissions focuses on the territorial impact of the industrial transition and mandates the Automotive Regions Alliance to assess funding gaps.
Regions and cities have been calling for a territorial impact assessment of
the ongoing transition towards zero-emission and digitalised vehicles. This
call has been accepted in the final wording of the regulation on the "CO2
emission standard performance for new passenger cars and new light
commercial vehicles in line with the Union’s increased climate ambition",
with the regulation now calling for particular attention to be paid to the
"impact that this transition will have on micro-enterprises and SMEs along
the supply chain and to affected regions and communities which might be
more vulnerable due to the presence of an intensive automotive industry".
In addition, European legislators have assign a central role to the
Automotive Regions Alliance, tasking it to help the European Commission to identify adequate financial
measures to address the needs of SMEs and the regions that are most
affected by the transition. This formally recognises the Alliance's
strategic role in ensuring a fair and just transformation.
Emil Boc
(RO/EPP), chair of the COTER commission and Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, said: "We welcome today's vote in the European Parliament, confirming the
central role of the Automotive Regions Alliance to find a fair
transition mechanism for the automotive and supply industry regions.
Regions with an automotive industry cannot be left alone to deal with
the consequences of the green and digital transition in road transport.
Therefore, in the upcoming years the work of the Alliance will focus in
particular on the human and territorial challenges in order to ensure a
just, fair and successful transition of the automotive and supply
industry regions."
Thomas Schmidt
(DE/EPP), Saxon State Minister for Regional Development and Chair of the
Automotive Regions Alliance, added: "Structural change in the automotive industry is in full swing and the
regions are already feeling it. Manufacturers and suppliers are equally
affected. Almost 7.5 million people work in the automotive and supplier
industry in the EU. Their working environment will change massively in
all areas. The European Commission initiated the ambitious targets for
the future and should therefore support the regions in their efforts to
achieve these goals. Consequently, the Automotive Regions Alliance
calls for a just and fair transition of the affected regions: We need a
European mechanism, such as the Just Transition Fund, that provides
targeted support for regions in making the change fair and equitable."
María Chivite
(ES/PES), President of Navarra and Co-Chair, stated: "Regions with a big automotive industry, such as Navarra, need EU
support to guarantee an orderly ecological transition that ensures
quality employment. The transport sector needs to contribute to the
EU's important climate change objectives and EU funds can help address
the transformation of the automotive industry. It is important that we
have enough time to implement the investments without jobs and quality
of life suffering. We in the institutions have an obligation to help
this transition by protecting workers through re-skilling. Our training
and re-skilling programmes in Navarra support the challenges of
requalification and ensure that job losses and increased inequalities
can be avoided. Today's vote to formally involve the Alliance of
Automotive Regions, which combines the expertise of many EU regions,
can help in this transition process."
The final
legislative text
mandates the European Commission to present a report by the end of 2025 on
what budgetary and policy means are necessary to make these transformations
fair for all. The legislators commit the European Commission to draw up its
report on the basis of the work of the Automotive Regions Alliance of the
CoR. It reaffirms the Union's ambitious climate-change targets in the
regulation, but underlines the need to find a fair transition mechanism and
assigns a key role to the Alliance.
Background:
The
Automotive Regions Alliance
is a political network of regions committed to the successful
transformation of Europe's automotive and supply industries. The Alliance
is an initiative of the European Committee of the Regions that recognises
the need for decisive action to achieve the EU's climate targets and aims
to bring together regions with a strong automotive sector that want to play
an active role in decarbonising the transport sector and contribute to
achieving the European Green Deal targets to ensure a just transition for
automotive regions. The Alliance currently consists of 31 participating
regions with Saxony (DE) as chair and Navarra (ES) and Lombardy (IT) as
co-chairs.
Europe's automotive and supply industry is in a phase of upheaval and
transformation: the EU's climate targets with the "Fit for 55" package
require a significant contribution in the road transport sector and thus
have an impact on all automotive regions in Europe. The automotive industry
is heavily affected by the green and digital transition, and accounts for
7.5 million jobs in car manufacturing industries and automobile services
which is more than 6% of European employment overall. The transition
towards zero-emission and digitalised vehicles will heavily impact the
regional automotive eco-systems and socio-economic structures. The goal of
the Automotive Regions Alliance therefore is to ensure that the transition
in the automotive sector is fair and successful leaving no region behind
while fully supporting the EU's climate goals.
Contact:
Theresa Sostmann
Tel. +32 475999415
Theresa.Sostmann@cor.europa.eu