The event, titled "A region in Flux: Commuting to work, transformation of the automotive industry and sustainability in the Northern Great Plain", took place in Debrecen on February 18th 2026.

The roundtable brought together regional stakeholders, including trade union and workers' representatives, employers, regional authorities, and researchers from university and research institutions.

The discussion focused on the current challenges facing the Hungarian Northern Great Plain region in the context of transformation of the automotive and broader mobility industry.

Topics included worker commuting patterns, how to improve them to achieve sustainability, and the need for well-functioning social dialogue.

Participants were introduced to key findings from the project's ongoing research on regional employment transformation and just mobility transition strategies.

The Debrecen roundtable marked the first in a series of events across the V4 countries.

Within the broader project, these structured dialogues aim to strengthen the capacity of regional actors in Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Poland to manage structural change in the automotive sector in a fair and sustainable manner.

The event was organised by CELSI researchers Tibor Meszmann and Pavol Bors. Its realisation benefitted from the support of regional employer organisation MGYOSZ and the trade union federation Vasas.

By connecting research insights with co-creative stakeholder dialogue, the project supports more inclusive regional strategies and reinforces the role of workers in shaping mobility transition processes.

EcoMobility Transition is a joint initiative from the ETUI, the Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI), NELA. Next Economy Lab, and Instytut Spraw Publicznych, part of European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN).

🔗 More about the project: https://ecomobility-transition.celsi.sk/

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