For several years now CLEPA has been a regular and trusted partner in EU projects funded by the European Commission.

For more information on the projects and CLEPA's involvement, follow the links.

Ensuring the availability of the right kind of skills and competence is imperative for the future of a competitive European automotive industry and securing employment opportunities. Across Europe a range of different bodies are working on anticipating skills and labour market needs, specifically for the automotive industry, providing information for different stakeholders. In its Communication on clean and energy efficient vehicles, the European Commission has proposed the establishment of a European Sectoral Skills Council with the view to better anticipate and identify the emerging skills and qualifications required to produce vehicles in the future.

Against this background, CLEPA is leading a co-funded European Commission project, to investigate the potential for the establishment of a European skills and employment council for the automotive sector.

The European project “Anticipation of Change in the Automotive Industry” started its second phase in December 2009. Co-financed by the EC DG Employment and Social Affairs it will run until the end of October 2010.

The main objective is 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.

The Auto-Gration project is aimed at providing a technical assistance service, on the basis of a tender issued by DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, by developing an analysis study, an interoperability reference architecture and a set of pilot prototypes for the harmonisation of business processes and data exchange architectures and standards, at European or international level, within the automotive sector, to facilitate the participation of SMEs in global digital supply chains.

Its ultimate objective is to create a favourable environment that will stimulate and enable the uptake of ICT and eBusiness technologies, notably by SMEs, in this highly SME-intensive sector in Europe.

The eSafety Challenge is a European Commission-funded project that focuses on innovative vehicle safety technologies and the potential lives to be saved on the roads through increased deployment of these technologies.

An important obstacle for deployment is the lack of awareness among both policymakers and end users, which is affecting policy support, user expectations and readiness for change.

The EU-funded project PRESS4TRANSPORT has been tasked with creating a Virtual Press Office to improve the media visibility of EU surface transport on a national and regional level.

The scope of the research to be promoted covers the entire Surface Transport System, i.e. road, rail and waterborne. The initial target of transport research projects to be disseminated has been defined as Sustainable surface mobility and Freight and Maritime transport.

The strategic objective of the Star-Net transport is to increase the participation of surface transport-related SMEs in the surface transport programe.

The aim of the Star-Net transport project is to be the first step towards the formation and development of a consolidated structure for support of SMEs in Europe for participation in Sustainable Surface Transport activities, building on the knowledge, tools and services developed within some of the most relevant FP6-SUSTDEV support actions over the recent years.

For further information on CLEPA's involvement in EU projects, please contact Mrs Amalia Di Stefano, EU Affairs Director.