The automotive industry meets Urso: “The resources are there, now it’s time to plan”

In via XX Settembre Adolfo Urso collects the legacy of Giancarlo Giorgetti. The table that met yesterday on the summons of the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy with the main companies in the sector had the aim of picking up the thread of a dialogue initiated by the Draghi government when Giancarlo Giorgetti and these meetings were at Palazzo Piacentini they were chaired by the current Minister of the Environment Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, at the time deputy minister of Mise. In fact, Minister Urso thanked his predecessors several times and claimed the line of continuity with what was set by the Draghi government.

No upheaval therefore from the policies launched by the Giorgetti-Pichetto duo, what awaits the new minister of Italian industry is rather a careful recalibration of the substantial funds allocated. We are talking about the 8.7 billion euros foreseen on a three-year basis by the previous government for the automotive fund which, with those foreseen by the Pnrr, national resources and IPcei projects, reach a total of 14 billion euros to be invested in a sector grappling with a complex transformation to deal with the advent of electric motors. At the end of the year, first of all, an evaluation of the actions already operational will have to be made. In particular, it has to be established what will happen to the approximately 250 million euros (Anfia estimate) of “surplus” incentives that had been destined for the purchase of an electric car but were not requested by those who bought it: the associations have asked that these resources are not diverted elsewhere but that they are reinvested in the sector next year. A proposal that the minister said he was sure he could accept. Then there are the agreements for innovation and development contracts to be reformulated, the instruments identified by the previous government to favor the conversion of production towards battery-powered engines and stimulate the commitment to research and development by companies.

“The incentives must be reviewed taking into account the actual needs of the sector and the imperative scrapping that affects a fleet of cars and industrial vehicles in circulation, which appear to be among the oldest in Europe”, declared the undersecretary at the end of the meeting Massimo Bitonci. “Particular emphasis was given to the need for specialized training for technicians and operators, with the establishment of professional schools specifically centered on electric mobility”, he added.

But now “the fight in Europe begins”. Minister Urso has placed Brussels at the center of his industrial policy, where he seeks support from France and Germany to respond to the protectionism applied by China and the United States towards their own national productions. Urso has already met the French Minister of Industry Bruno Le Maire and the German Vice Chancellor and Super Minister of Economy and Climate – as well as leader of the Greens – Robert Habeck. The goal is to put together a quick joint action. From the ministry they underline the urgency of this action: “You can’t wait six months like for the gas price cap, the response must be quick”. Urso explained to the participants at the table that there is particular work to be done on state aid rules in order to be able to deal with the large public resources directed towards industrial policy by the two competitors – Urso recalled that the United States has allocated 369 billion, “we in Europe must be able to do the same” – and called for the creation of a European sovereign wealth fund to finance the ecological transition, not only in the automotive sector.

Also in Brussels there will be discussions on the new Euro 7 regulation and the proposal for new CO2 standards for heavy vehicles. On the other hand, the date of 2035 for the stop on the sale of petrol and diesel cars no longer seems to be in question. On this last point, the government’s strategy seems to have focused on the 2026 review clause: assessing the results achieved by the industry and the market reaction on that date and then deciding what to do. Another point of contact with the previous government is in fact the safeguarding of the principle of technological neutrality, a concept taken up several times by the minister during the meeting.

At the meeting there were not only the top politicians of the Ministry of Enterprises – in addition to Minister Urso and the already mentioned Undersecretary Bitonci, the Deputy Minister Valentino Valentini and Undersecretary Fausta Bergamotto also took part in the work – but also some “technicians” from by the other competent ministries: Finance, Environment and Transport. The minister’s approach to issues affecting the sector was positive according to several participants at the table, where all industrial representatives were present, including trade associations and producers, and the trade union counterparts absent. Fabrizia Vigo of Anfia, the association that represents the Italian automotive supply chain, points out that “we start from a situation in which there are the resources and the tools thanks also to the efforts made by the previous government: now let’s understand together what it didn’t work and what to improve”.

The trade unions, on the other hand, were not invited. And they didn’t take it well: “The table convened today by Minister Urso, with the sole participation of companies, represents a step backwards compared to the management of the previous tables, which among other things were the result of requests from trade union organisations. This method cannot be explained, even in the light of the unitary request that the metalworkers’ unions sent to ministers Urso and Pichetto Fratin to start industrial policy tables for the environmental and technological transition, starting with the one on the automotive industry”, said Simone Marinelli, coordinator national automotive for Fiom-Cgil. However, the ministry let it be known that there is no attempt to exclude trade union organizations from the debate, specifying that the meeting was used by the minister to collect the proposals of the entrepreneurial world and assuring that the same minister promised to meet the union parties also involving the Ministry of Labor in the discussion. The commitment, says the minister, is to transform the automotive table into a permanent table to accompany the sector in the transformations that await it. With one advantage: this time programming can count on the resources already allocated.