Strasbourg, 17 June (Adnkronos) – The work of the Lombardy Region Economic Development Councillor Guido Guidesi continues to make Lombardy increasingly a protagonist in Europe. A two-day meeting in Strasbourg of institutional meetings, including a meeting with all 40 regions adhering to the Automotive Regions Alliance, in his capacity as European president, and bilateral meetings with the president of the Grand Est region and the minister of Bavaria.
The main topics discussed during the meetings were automotive and steel industries.
For the first, Guidesi reiterated to the European Regions the "need to make corrections to the current directives of the European Commission in order to avoid what could be remembered as the most important economic suicide in history".
Already today, 75% of potential production in Europe is effectively at a standstill: 500.000 jobs are at risk on the continent. In Italy, the number of cars produced in 2024 was 20% lower, with peaks of 30% for component manufacturers, compared to 2019. We are talking about a sector that in Lombardy alone is worth over 30.000 companies and 100.000 workers, with a total turnover of 40 billion euros.
"As 'Sistema Lombardo' - Guidesi explained on the sidelines of the meetings - in these four years we believe we have done everything we could; we were the first to raise the alarm in the most deafening silence, we have prepared scientific documents thanks to the support of the Lombardy Mobility Cluster and the Universities, we have created alliances with the European Regions; now it is up to Europe to give concrete answers and make radical changes to save a strategic sector for European manufacturing. We will continue to fight to save companies and jobs; for us the main principles of 'technological neutrality' and plurality of traction do not change and we seriously expect the Commission to also make them its own".
In fact, since 2021, Lombardy has been able to carve out a leading role in the battle to safeguard the sector and in recent months has promoted two documents submitted to Commissioner Tzitzikostas: the first is the 'Monza Declaration' signed by all 40 regions belonging to the Automotive Alliance to promote technological neutrality, the second is the 'Renewable Fuels Manifesto' signed by the main stakeholders and trade associations at a national level to promote a plurality of low-emission tractions, in addition to electric.
The plenary session with the 40 Regions belonging to the ARA was instead the occasion to reiterate concerns, find common strategies and deliver the update of the Lombardy 'Manifesto of Renewable Fuels' with the aim of strengthening alliances and continuing the work of 'institutional lobby', so that the voice of the territories can be heard in Europe by influencing the decisions of the Commission and the European Parliament.
"Today - Guidesi continued - we positively note the unity of the Regions on the principle of 'technological neutrality'; it is also important to have jointly requested the maximum involvement of the regions for the new action plan, also reiterating a strong concern for the situation of the automotive sector at a European level; a situation that requires immediate changes".
Finally, the meeting with the President of Grand-Est Franck Leroy was very useful to agree on common strategies in terms of support for the steel industry, strategic sectors for both Lombardy and the French region. "A joint program has been finalized - explained Guidesi - to be implemented in the coming months. Precisely on the subject of protecting the steel sector, at the end of April Guidesi and a delegation from the Confindustria Brescia sector met the European Commission in Brussels, in particular the representatives of the EU Directorate-General for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG Grow), with the aim of bringing their requests in support of a strategic and fundamental sector for the Lombardy production and economic system, currently suffering precisely because of European hyper-regulation.