EPA NEWS << Do you know “parking people” personally? When you work in Brussels at EU level, you quickly get to know different areas of society and every business sector has its own pecu- liarities. At first, I mainly knew people from the automotive, transport and logistics sec- tors. As I mentioned, I came into contact with parking ten years ago and quickly real- ised how important the parking business is for the whole mobility industry. I have known several EPA representatives for many years, e.g. Nigel Williams, Laurence Bannerman or Elisabeth Herles. In my job I also get to know industry leaders, and I par- ticularly enjoy working with CEOs as they provide valuable insights on the business interests which I then advocate for. What are your personal ambitions? Personally, I have worked a lot with associa- tions, companies and foundations. For me as a lobbyist, it is always an ambition to be- come the number one of an association so to be offered this opportunity with the EPA is wonderful. In my private life I am a proud father of three little Belgo-Bulgarian girls and I made a personal commitment that I also want to be there for my family. There- fore, a flexible position with a positive work- life-balance is very important for me as well. Do you have a personal connection to the topic of parking? Of course, and I believe everyone should! I like cars, I like technology, I like the free- dom of mobility. I think that is an important aspect of personal mobility. I don’t believe the car will disappear from our cities in the near future, but obviously urban mobility is changing and the parking industry with it. As a lobbyist, you talk to many people from different countries. Which languages do you understand? I can communicate in five languages: Flem- ish – my native language, English, French, German and Spanish. My partner and our girls also speak Bulgarian, though I cannot claim to master this language yet. How do you gain access to the EU bureau- cracy? In Brussels there are 30,000 lobbyists, over 180 nationalities and more than 3,000 as- sociations for almost everything you can think of. For the EPA it is clear: we repre- sent parking and we are recognized as such. My goal is that people immediately know what we, the EPA, are – just by men- tioning our name. As soon as you are iden- tified as a relevant stakeholder, you can take a seat at the table. My personal ambi- tion is quite simple: I want the EPA to be recognised for its expertise, combining both the public and private sectors. When it comes to European policies related to parking, I want people to pick up the phone and ask us. You could say I want to become known as the “parking guy”, as I believe “Mr Parking” is already taken. can be useful at a certain point. So I am an open-minded networker and try to get along with everyone, including politicians from all parties and lobbyists from all the other mobility actors. Another principle is: Timing is very important when influencing legislation. You have to come up with the right arguments early on in the legislative process. It helps to have good personal re- lations so as to be there at the very begin- ning, for example when responding to public consultations by the European Commission. And I am confident that the EPA action plan will work, because we have many pull factors to underpin the impor- tance of our sector. Which bodies are responsible for parking matters within the EU administration? In general, three EU institutions are particu- larly relevant: firstly, the European Commis- sion and its Commissioner for Transport, secondly, the European Parliament and its Transport & Tourism Committee, and thirdly, the Council of (Transport) Minis- ters. On any piece of EU legislation, these three institutions must work together. How- ever, the so-called subsidiarity principle is important for our business. As far as possi- ble, regulation should be carried out by the most appropriate governmental level. For parking, this means that regulation comes mostly from the national, regional and local levels. So in reality, the EU does not have so much power but more of a coordinating role, including financial support for re- search and innovation projects. The Sus- tainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), for example, are known as “soft law” and not actual legislation. We therefore also need strong national parking associations in the EPA and always have to check: Is it an EU issue or something at the national or local level? What is your approach and strategy then? As a whole, I always believe that the EU institutions are civil servants serving soci- ety. EPA is a legitimate public and private sector actor and thus also part of society. In my external role as EPA representative, I wish to be in constant dialogue with stake- holders. One principle I follow is: make friends before you need them. Everyone Like the EPA president, have you personal- ly noticed that the importance and percep- tion of parking has increased? Yes indeed, I was already observing this be- fore I was contacted by the EPA President. I recall that ten years ago at EU level, politi- cians and lobbyists were already claiming that 30 per cent of urban traffic was caused by the search for parking spaces. So people asked, what can be a solution? It is nice to see that, within high-level discussions on digitalisation and decarbonisation, parking management is now getting more attention – but not always in a positive way. Often, parking is still seen as a problem, especially at municipal level. I want it to be seen as a solution! Parking as a problem, parking as a solu- tion: What is your strategy in between these contrasting views? As mentioned, I notice that politicians talk more about parking, but also in a negative way. We need to continue working on a bet- ter perception of parking. We are the ones who take the cars off the street and give ur- ban space back to people and nature. More- over, our sector has recently started to offer additional value-added services that people like. Based on technology and data sharing, the whole sector is changing. These are ex- citing times, and I look forward to contrib- n uting to this change in awareness. The interview was conducted by Marko Ruh, Editor-in-Chief of Parking trend. Parking trend international no. 1-2023 21 21