BEPA’s 7th General Assembly: new Secretary General appointed, 15 new members, € 496 million investments reported in Additional Activities

19 November 2023

A record number of participants were present at the seventh General Assembly of BEPA to get the latest updates on BEPA’s activities and achievements in 2023 and shape the future of the association. Highlight of the meeting was the appointment of the new BEPA Secretary General. Starting in 2024, Fabrice Stassin, Director Government Affairs Electromobility Projects at Umicore, will be the new BEPA Secretary General continue on the path paved since the creation of BEPA by Philippe Jacques , who will step down from his position by the end of the year.

“I very much look forward to working with the Board, the EU institutions, Member States, Regions and BEPA members coming from industry, research organizations and associations. We have come a long way since the publication by the European Commission of a Strategic Action Plan on Batteries under the leadership of Maroš Šefčovič. While a European battery partnership was back then just a line in a strategic document, it is now a successful Horizon Europe partnership mobilizing, growing and strengthening our ecosystem.” [Fabrice Stassin, Director Government Affairs Electromobility Projects at Umicore]

 

This year, BEPA members, in their role as partners in the private-public BATT4EU Partnership, were asked to report on their In-Kind Additional Activities for the first time. As per the Memorandum of Understanding between BEPA and the European Commission, the Partners other than the Union are required to invest at least as much as €925 million by 2027 into battery activities. With this first report, it was shown that more than €496 million had been invested in the first one and a half year of the BATT4EU Partnership. This is very encouraging as it already represents more than half of the amount required under the MoU. As this amount is based on voluntary reporting and in all likelihood not capturing all investments, BEPA will conduct a second opinion to validate the reported figure.

During the meeting, the BEPA members voted in favour of welcoming 15 new members into the association, reaching a total number of 228 members. Also, BEPA members voted on the open Executive Board and Association Delegation positions, which saw the re-lection of Gian Carlo Tronzano, Head of E-Mobility Global Competence Center from Comau, filling the Manufacturing Supply position on the Board. To fill the Board position on recycling, Justo Garcia, Head of Financing Strategy Battery Project at Orano, was also re-elected in this occasion. Congratulations to Ilaria Pucher, Head of R&D from Green Energy Storage for being elected as an Association Delegation representative for the Advanced Materials sector; and Mel Totman, Head of Product Management at Rimac Technology, for winning the election to be one of the two Association Delegation representatives for the Automotive sector.