The automotive sector, an important source of economic prosperity, employment and innovation in the EU, is undergoing a major transformation as a result of market trends, international competition, technological innovation and regulatory changes. This transformation creates new opportunities for Europe’s automotive sector but represents, at the same time, major challenges for the industry, its employees and the territories in which the sector operates.

The different actors should be made aware of the need to anticipate change and to take a proactive approach. Against this background, the European Commission (DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, DG Enterprise and Industry and DG Environment) launched on 17/18 October 2007, a Restructuring Forum, aimed at discussing "The challenges of the automotive industry – Towards a European partnership for the anticipation of change".

This initiative was a starting point to gather all relevant stakeholders to review the evolution of the automotive sector, to open a dialogue between the different actors and to help them to adapt to the change. One of the main objectives of the Forum was to establish a "European Partnership for the anticipation of change in the automotive industry"[1].

This innovative document agreed to by the European Commission and all the economic and social players of the sector (i.e. ACEA, representing all European car manufactures; CLEPA, representing the European automotive suppliers; and EMF, the European Metalworkers Federation) refers to the roles and responsibilities of the European institutions, National governments, companies, trade unions and regions.

Moreover, it commits the partners to a series of 14 actions over a 2-year period (2008-2009) aimed at monitoring the developments in the industry and exchange know-how and best practices on managing disruptive change in a socially responsible way (Annex III of the Partnership).

Some of these actions have been already implemented in the 12-month European project “Anticipation of Change in the Automotive Industry” (VS/2008/0328), that has explored the main drivers behind change in the automotive sector and the mechanisms that should be implemented in order to anticipate and manage it in a socially responsible way. The main objective of this work jointly carried out by CLEPA and EMF (with ACEA and CEEMET as observers) was to investigate, in accordance with known automotive trends for 2020:

·           Good practices in anticipating and managing change within companies and regions

·           Good practices in increasing skills levels and employability within companies, regions and sectors

·           Analysis of automotive regions

In addition to these three studies partners have organised dissemination events to mobilise the actors around the main principles and objective of the project and issued political recommendations.

The “Anticipation of Change in the Automotive Industry II” can be considered as the second implementation phase of the joint and comprehensive strategy outlined in the European Partnership signed in 2007.

Moreover, “Anticipation of Change in the Automotive Industry II” aims at engaging the industry, trade unions, regional, national and European authorities in a new dialogue building on the main findings of the previous project.

To achieve these objectives the partners shall focus on the following actions:

·           Mobility, quality of life and societal demands

·           Impact of regulatory changes

·           Integration of the supply chain.

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