The European Parking Association
The approx. 3.000 member operations of the 19 associations from 18 European countries associated under the EPA manage more than 2.7 million parking spaces in more than 8.500 car parks and underground car parks and many millions of on-street spaces. Many positive and negative examples concerning parking strategy choices and professional management policies and results are available from the EPA experience. The parking industry has grown in Europe into an important economic sector, in terms of both the industry itself and also for the economic effects in each individual city and at each place where parking management is provided. The economic value of the industry is estimated today to be approx. 5 billion Euro. Thousands of jobs are linked to the parking business, in just the private and public sector parking operators. The numbers are increased significantly if there are added those in the peripheral parking industry and in the relevant service companies such as:
  • Manufacturers of car park management equipment,
    building contractors
  • Planning and architectural firms
  • Manufacturers of ventilation and fire protection equipment
  • Manufacturers of coin and banknote testing equipment
  • Cleaning companies
  • Sign manufacturers, painting companies
  • Floor coating companies
  • Manufacturers of video- and other monitoring systems
  • Printing shops
  • Bailiffs and debt collectors etc.

Political decisions on questions of urban transport policy always also have economic effects which have to be taken into account by those involved in transport policy making.

Why be a Member?

  • EPA is the umbrella organisation of national parking associations in Europe

  • EPA is recognised by the European Commission as the organisation that represents the public and private parking industry in Europe

  • The EPA board is represented in EC-working groups developing European Parking Guidelines

  • The Advisory Council of Directors researches parking topics to give members international experiences in specific parking fields

  • The European Committee of Parking Experts organises seminars on technical parking subjects and excursions to innovative parking projects

  • EPA organises a biannual International Parking Congress

  • EPA promotes safety and quality in car parks by granting awards to qualifying projects:
    • The European Parking Awards are made every two years for the best recent parking projects
    • The European Standard Parking Award can be made to every car park that meets the standard in safety and customer friendliness as set by EPA


  • EPA members receive free “Parking Trend International” magazine from EPA.

  • The web site of EPA , the first parking dedicated site in the world and recently redesigned, contains information on parking policy and the parking industry in Europe. This leading source of information can be found on this website of EPA.

All members receive the EPA Yearbook which contains:

  1. Addresses of ordinary  and extra ordinary members
  2. Names and addresses of EPA officials and members of working groups
  3. EPA articles of organisation and official statements
  4. EPA objectives and activities
  5. General information

The following EPA research is available to EPA members:

  1. LPG in car parks
  2. Ventilation in car parks
  3. On-street parking tariffs
  4. VAT in parking in Europe
  5. Urban Parking Policy Guidelines

New projects are:

  1. The European Parking Quality Standard, developed and implemented in co-operation with the Association Internationale de Tourisme and the Federation Internationale de l´Automobile
  2. Research – Parking by Mobile Phone
  3. Research – Paying for Parking by Number plate recognition
  4. Research – Fire in car parks

The results will be available to EPA members.