June 18, 2025

The following is a press release:

The European automotive sector is undergoing a profound transformation, driven by the green and digital transitions and intensified by global competition and geopolitical instability. In this critical context, the Automotive Regions Alliance (ARA) hosted a high-level conference in Strasbourg on 17 June, during the European Parliament's plenary session, to reinforce the role of regions in shaping the sector’s future.

The conference took place as the EU prepares its next long-term budget post-2027 and the future cohesion policy, both crucial for ensuring regional competitiveness. Regional leaders and members of the European Parliament gathered to advance the implementation of the Action Plan for the European Automotive Industry and to evaluate the progress made since the Plan’s adoption. The Grand Est Region of France, host of the conference and next chair of ARA, is also a strategic location, as a major production hub of the French automotive industry, with 117,000 industrial jobs spread across 2,300 facilities.

The conference’s discussions aimed to clarify the content and timeline of key upcoming legislative milestones towards the implementation of this Action Plan, offering regions a platform to share practical tools, challenges, and progress, with a particular focus on employment, skills, and innovation. Regional leaders presented targeted interventions showing how each pillar of the Plan is being translated into action locally, from deploying e-mobility infrastructure to supporting SME suppliers in advancing production capabilities. They called for increased EU support for cross-border training partnerships, new qualification programmes, and stronger collaboration between public authorities and industry to anticipate future skills needs.

They also emphasised the need for transition funding for regions that are heavily reliant on the automotive industry. In the broader context of the efforts to shape future cohesion policy and defend the role of regions in implementing EU policies, they underlined the support that regions provide for industrial transformation — particularly through innovation ecosystems - and to the development of industrial and mobility policies. A place-based and differentiated approach that takes into account the specific challenges of regional value chains with local and regional authorities as strategic partners will be key for a successful and just transition.

Regional leaders further pointed to the need for a technology-neutral approach to the transition, with electrification at its core, and for clearer EU guidance on public procurement and fleet renewal strategies, which are essential for enabling regions to lead by example in the shift to clean mobility.

Quotes

Guido Guidesi, ARA Chair and Regional Minister for Economic Development of Lombardy: “Today we positively note the unity of the Regions on the principle of 'technological neutrality'. It is also important to make the joint request for a better involvement of the regions in the automotive Action Plan, also reiterating a strong concern for the situation of the sector at European level. This situation requires immediate changes!”

Franck Leroy, President of the Grand Est region and Vice-President of ARA: “In Strasbourg, the Regions launched an unambiguous call: the success of the automotive industry's transition requires determined mobilisation of the European Union. We are already hard at work on the ground -- supporting subcontractors, training the professions of the future, investing in low-carbon technologies. But the challenges are considerable, and we cannot meet them alone. Europe now needs to step up a gear, by protecting its industry from increasingly aggressive competition, and by supporting businesses in a transition that is fair, practical and rooted in the regions.”

Oliver Schenk (DE/EPP), Member of the European Parliament: “The industrial transformation is shaping Europe's future -- for jobs, regions and social cohesion. We now need political clarity, strategic courage and solidarity with the regions. Our goal is clear: not less, but more industrial strength in Europe.”

Background

Photos from the conference.

Participants visited the Schaeffler France industrial site. The Schaeffler Group is a global leader in motion technology offering innovative and sustainable solutions, from bearing systems to electric mobility and renewable energy, across the entire product life cycle.

The outcome of the conference’s discussions was shared during a meeting with the Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, and will be used as a basis for the work ahead of the upcoming Munich ARA Annual Conference in September and towards the messages of its Declaration.

The Automotive Regions Alliance is an initiative of the European Committee of the Regions, consisting of 38 participating regions, that recognises the need for decisive action to achieve the EU's climate targets. It aims to bring together regions with a strong automotive sector that want to play an active role in decarbonising the transport sector and to contribute to achieving the European Green Deal targets, to ensure a just transition for automotive regions.

The ‘Monza Declaration’ was adopted during the ARA assembly in November 2024.

On 5 March, the European Commission presented the Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector. On 1 April, the CoR adopted an urgent resolution on strengthening the territorial dimension in the implementation of the Industrial Plan for the European Automotive Sector calling for a stronger territorial approach in the implementation of the European Commission’s Industrial Action Plan for the European automotive sector (press release).

DG GROW Brief on “Mapping the impact of industrial decline on European regions”.

CoR study on the “State of play and future challenges of automotive regions”.

Contact

Hélène Dressen

Tel.: +32 471502795

Helene.dressen@cor.europa.eu