Over 80 000 job losses were announced in the European automotive industry in the second half of 2024. Short-term emergency measures and a long-term industrial and investment deal are essential.
She said: “The crisis in the automotive sector is a human crisis, affecting the fate of millions of men and women who work in the European automotive supply chain. This is our absolute priority and focus. It is extremely urgent that the Commission sends workers a signal that policymakers understand the scale of anxiety that restructurings entail.”
2024 – the worst year for automotive employment
Kirton-Darling emphasised that, according to industriAll Europe’s estimates, more than 80 000 job losses were announced between June and December 2024 in the European automotive industry, impacting all parts of the supply chain. This makes 2024 the worst year for automotive employment in Europe since the financial crisis.
CLEPA and Eurofound have recently published reports confirming this negative trend.
Workers and their families are rightly concerned that they are paying for the consequences of inconsistent political and corporate decisions, in a context of unprecedented financial profits (especially by OEMs), historical dividends and CEO bonuses over recent years. Meanwhile, workers have been forced to make huge sacrifices.
Urgent action required on at least 3 issues
This grim context, in a strategic sector for the EU, requires bold and urgent action from the EU on at least three issues:
- The EU must deliver an action plan to safeguard jobs in the sector. In the short term, it means a moratorium on scrapping industrial assets and forced redundancies, ensuring a SURE 2.0 initiative and negotiated solutions for every site and worker to avoid unemployment and the loss of vital know-how and skills in Europe.
In the mid-term, the EU must strengthen its Just Transition legal framework to better anticipate and manage structural change through negotiated plans, well-funded training and reskilling schemes, and adequate funding for the most impacted regions.
This would avoid the longer term deepening of the demographic crisis of an ageing workforce in European manufacturing.
- We reiterate our view that the EU must implement and complement the Green Deal with a genuine and assertive European industrial and investment strategy for the entire sector and its supply chain. The Draghi report is clear on the scale of the investment needed – this demands a review of EU fiscal rules and the creation of a so-called ‘golden rule’ for clean transition investments, with social conditionalities attached.
This would be a real deal between industry, the workforce and the taxpayer, not only a blank cheque for industry.
- A European Action Plan to manufacture clean cars and make them affordable to all is necessary since the weak demand is the main factor responsible for the job losses in the sector and because there is an affordability gap for a growing number of Europeans unable to afford the vehicles being produced (for profit maximisation reasons).
European tools exist through IPCEIs, public procurement, the social climate fund, purchase incentives or mandates on corporate fleets, that could be used to incentivise the production and purchase of smaller, affordable zero-emission vehicles in Europe. Connecting to promised European initiatives on lead markets would create benefits for the wider automotive supply chain.
For the next steps – industriAll Europe will be a constructive supporter
Photos: European Union