More emphasis needs to be placed on job creation warns the European Commission with the Continent’s unemployment total having now burst through the 25m barrier.

The automotive sector, mainly PSA Peugoet Citroen, Renault and Ford, say they will shed thousands of staff in a bid to retain competitivity in the face of dwindling demand, but addressing last week’s European automotive supplier body, CLEPA’s, Annual Reception in Brussels, Climate Action Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, insisted more should be done for employment.

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“We have an economic crisis in Europe right now, a job crisis,” she said. “The strategy is about delivering growth, which is smart.

“We need an emphasis on job creation in a Europe where 25m Europeans do not have a job. I believe in a strong, competitive, European automotive industry.”

Part of that auto competitiveness can come from hard European Union cash and Hedegaard pointed to recent budget talks that secured more finance for innovation, despite some tough negotiations.

“We did not get all the things we proposed, but it is very important we got a significant increase,” she said. “It is absolutely key to Europe – we have economic challenges but we are not so poor we can’t do more in Research & Development.”

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Addressing CELPA delegates from a regulatory standpoint, the Commissioner maintained rules “were not an evil” but should be balanced with knowledge and insight.

“Sometimes my job is to push you, the [automotive] sector a bit further than you would like to be pushed,” said Hedegaard. “The EU is not alone in taking such action.

“What is going to happen with cars after 2020? Of course targets should not be set arbitrarily We are not interested in putting targets out that are not cost efficient or the sector can not see are tangible.”