Europe’s Automotive Regions Alliance has adopted the Bilbao Declaration, setting out a joint position on the EU’s forthcoming Industrial Accelerator Act and the European Commission’s Automotive Package, following a meeting in Bilbao on 27 May.
The declaration is the first joint political position from the alliance’s 41 participating regions on the Industrial Accelerator Act, presented by the European Commission on 4 March 2026, and the Automotive Package, adopted on 16 December 2025, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) informed on Wednesday.
The regions backed a “Made in EU” approach designed to strengthen European value chains, while calling for requirements to be targeted and proportionate, provide legal certainty and avoid undue burdens on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The alliance also called for coherence between the Industrial Accelerator Act and existing measures for the car industry, including the Automotive Package and the Automotive Action Plan, and asked for an assessment of how the different initiatives interact.
Regions call for role in industrial policy and technology-neutral rules
The declaration reaffirmed “technological neutrality” as a guiding principle, with support for electrification alongside other options including low-carbon materials, advanced batteries, hydrogen and sustainable renewable fuels, the CoR statement said.
The group supported an EU initiative on small and affordable electric vehicles, while saying the transition should not rely exclusively on that initiative and that manufacturers should be able to offer a diverse range of vehicles driven by demand.
It also called for an assessment, ahead of 2035, of the role and effectiveness of sustainable renewable fuels — including biofuels — in line with climate neutrality goals by 2050.
A central message in the Bilbao Declaration was that regions should play a leading role across the full cycle of European industrial policy, from designing “acceleration areas” to deploying public procurement and support schemes and monitoring impacts on supply chains, SMEs and regional economies.
The automotive sector provides direct and indirect jobs to 13.8 million Europeans, Emil Boc, Mayor of Cluj-Napoca and first vice-chair of the European Committee of the Regions’ commission for territorial cohesion policy and the EU budget, said in the statement.
