Urging EU authorities to allow them to steer their businesses more freely, the continent’s automotive manufacturers find common ground with many members of the European Parliament, a newly launched EU Perspectives podcast confirms.
Few areas of European policy stir emotions as forcefully as the regulation of automobile manufacturing. Lofty environmental policies, driven by climate concerns, appear all to often incompatible with economic reality on the automotive ground. Tuesday’s podcast on the thorny subject, produced by the news portal EU Perspectives, featured a top representative of the industry, who exchanged opinions – and found lot of common ground – with two ranking members of the European Parliament.
The podcast allowed the participants to air a range of grievances just hours before Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, delivered her long-awaited blueprint on how to drive the square peg of the Green Deal into the round hole of concerns for the continent’s competitiveness.
A star-studded debate
The format of the podcast delivered on the mission statement of EU Perspectives. The news portal aims to voice a variety of perspectives through the participation of EU policy stakeholders across political groups, nationalities, and affiliations.
The pilot podcast featured MEPs from across the aisle. Jens Gieseke MEP, hailing from Germany and the European People’s Party (of which he is the chief negotiator for all things automotive), discussed the ins and outs of Europe’s carmaking scene with Ondřej Kutílek, a Czech MEP for European Conservatives and Reformists. Their debate was added extra gravitas by Sigrid de Vries, Director General of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.
Past mistakes
Ms de Vries was the one to fire the initial salvo. “We need to have a more competitive framework,“ she exhorted. “(The industry is suffering from) a lack of competitiveness necessary to manufacture profitably and affordably, to secure jobs, to make the transition to electromobility, and to keep Europe mobile.“
Mr Gieseke’s response sounded a similar note. “We have a lack of competitiveness, so we have to change the rules. This means that after the Fit for 55 and the Green Deal, we have to confess that we made some mistakes. And these mistakes should be corrected,” the EPP’s automotive go-to man reached for a heavy caliber.
Mr Krutílek was not one to lag behind, stressing the fiscal side of the issues at hand. “I’m not a friend of any subsidies,“ he said emphatically when the current EU policies were discussed. “It has been correctly pointed out that the European budget is not ready for that.“
Many questions, few answers
While recognizing the differences of priorities mutually different standpoints, political allegiances and ideological leanings, the trio acknowledged their constituencies‘ shared need for securing a future both sustainable and competitive.
That, however, is easier said than done. On Wednesday, the European Union’s collective attention focused on Ms von der Leyen’s unveiling of the long-awaited Competitiveness Compass. The document provides a rough outline of the policies she intends to pursue in her second term as EC President.
In her Wednesday press briefing, Ms von der Leyen spoke of the need to reduce the much-maligned red tape in order for the Union to become more business-friendly. At the same time, she refused to budge on her previous green policy goals. The nuts and bolts of any measures proposed in the Compass thus remain to be worked out. The central question – how to secure the funding for the massive investments required to implement them – is still to find plausible answers.
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Rocky road ahead
Meanwhile, Europe’s automotive industry is trying to retain a degree of optimism. “I imagine that it comes across as a lot of doom and gloom. Then again, there’s a really positive story to tell,” ACEA’s Ms de Vries said during the EU Perspectives podcast. “I believe we can deliver a very resilient, forward-looking, innovative auto industry, one which will again be one of the pillars of the European economy.”
Her podcast partners concurred. But the entire industry is well aware that it is in for a distinctly bumpy uphill ride with no clear end in sight.
