BRUSSELS "The politicians in Brussels live in their own world and are not aware of the problems in the truck industry", said Leif Östling, CEO of Swedish truck manufacturer Scania, when meeting EU officials in Brussels. 

On behalf of ACEA, European Automobile Manufacturers Association, in which he is chairman, Leif Östling spent two days in Brussels meeting with Vladimir Spidla and Antonio Tajani, employment-, and transport commissioners of the European Commission and several members of the European Parliament (MEP).  

The main reason reason of the meetings was to inform the EU-politicians of the severe downturn in the truck market, something the politicians were unaware of according to Östling.

Accompanied by colleagues from the truck industry such as Aad Goudriaan, president of DAF, and Andreas Renschler, CEO Daimler Trucks, Leif Östling said that the EU-politicains mix up the major truck companies with the car industry and that they think it's business as usual.

"We are much worse off than the car industry. We've seen a 50 percent drop in demand on average and in some markets an 80 percent drop. It's the most severe downturn I've ever seen and that is what we came to tell the politicians", he told The Swedish Wire.   

With such market conditions Östling and his colleagues think that it's going to be difficult to reach the goals regarding safety and environment set up by the EU, since those goals were based on a completely different market. ACEA estimates that the Euro VI emission requirements, which is one of the targets, alone will require an immediate investment from the industry worth 6-8 billion euro.  

"And there is zero cash flow. It will be very difficult to reach those targets", says Östling who wishes to postpone the Euro VI requirements so that the level of ambition of the EU-decision-makers adapts to the situation on the market and the companies' ability to finance their R&D projects that derive from EU legislation. 

During the meetings Östling and the other CEOs also asked for quicker access to support from the European Investment Bank and the research funds, who they believe have very long lead times.  

"Well, the bureaucracy has it's own working pace, but now in a time of crises everything is happening very fast so there's a discrepancy here", he says.

Östling and he's colleagues are not expecting any promises from neither the Commissioners nor the MEPs. However, they are confident that the EU-officials appreciated the talks and more meetings are to come.  

"We will continue with the dialog. There is new EU-legislation coming up, but with the current market condition, which I don't think will improve much in several years, it will be very difficult for us to cope with the current targets", says Leif Östling.