EU launches consultation on competitiveness of region’s car industry
The European Commission has launched a stakeholder consultation as part of its initiative to boost the competitiveness of the European car industry. On 13 January a high-level group “CARS 21” was set up consisting of member states representatives, the industry, trade unions, NGOs, the European Parliament and the European Commission to generate recommendations to improve the worldwide competitiveness of the European automotive industry.
All interested parties are now invited to provide input for the work of the group. The main objective is to define a strategy to improve the policy framework affecting this sector by including the stakeholders’ views on the interaction between different policies and by maximising the benefits for both economic operators and the European society.
The consultation will run until 15 April 2005 and will be followed by a hearing of senior-level industry and civil society representatives on 21 April 2005. All the documents submitted by stakeholders will be put on the Commission’s website to be viewed and consulted by the public. Further meetings are planned for July, November and December. More details are available from http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/automotive/index_en.htm.
