The automotive industry is a representative and relevant activity branch for Romania, and the European Commission is looking to support this sector, including by measures for employees, European Commission Executive Vice-President Roxana Minzatu told a press conference in Bucharest, specifying that this was a central theme of discussion during her two-day visit to Romania, with Romanian officials and social partners.
"We discussed the automotive industry, a sector where we have a strategic dialogue with representatives of auto and auto component manufacturers. It is a representative and relevant industry for Romania. Romanian workplaces are involved in this strategic dialogue. I have met and will continue to meet with sector representatives. Of course, we insist a lot on the areas of labor, labor training, jobs. But we also discuss technology, financing and regulations," said the EC representative.
"We are trying to outline a set of measures and a type of support (...) We are talking about state aid types, about ease of access thereto, funding for research, development, innovation, the licensing and reporting part, the targets and obligations the industry, including the automotive one, has to fulfill in certain stages, over a years-long period. All these discussions are on the table, my role is to make sure that we also use the European Social Fund Plus that I coordinate, and other types of European funding," Minzatu said in reply to a question about the measures laid out in the support plan for Romania's automotive industry.
"We are also looking at the support the companies themselves can provide, the European Investment Bank, for us to be able to come up with a support package for employee training, but also for a just transition, as we call it, in order to ensure, to safeguard jobs and position the workers in these industries. (...) The automotive industry usually provides jobs with secured rights, with employee investments, with certain benefits and with an organizational culture, with a technical and digital dimension," she explained.
European Commission Executive Vice-President for Social Rights and Skills, Quality Jobs and Preparedness Roxana Minzatu was in Bucharest on Monday and Tuesday for talks with Romanian officials, on her first official visit to Romania in her new capacity.
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