Cycling Industries Europe and CONEBI will merge into a single advocacy force, uniting suppliers, stakeholders, and national associations under one structure in Brussels. Incoming leader Paul Walsh said the tie-up will strengthen the industry’s voice on European policy and improve coordination across markets.
Paul Walsh is set to lead the joint organization of Cycling Industries Europe (CIE) and the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry (CONEBI), which agreed to a merger during Eurobike 2025 to harmonize their activities and amplify the industry’s advocacy efforts in Brussels.
CIE represents suppliers and other stakeholders from around the European cycling ecosystem, while CONEBI encompasses national cycling industry associations. The two parties have signed a letter of intent to move ahead with an integrated structure.
“We’ll be much stronger at a European level as a result of this merger,” said Walsh. He became CIE’s chief executive in May. Walsh added that the tie-up will help to harmonize the activities of industry players and national organizations, around national regulations that impact the European bicycle industry.
“Politics in all countries and in Brussels want to hear one voice, so we need one voice,” said Burkhard Stork, chief executive at ZIV, the largest bicycle industry association in Europe. “There are more advantages, that are better coordination and connection.” Stork said that the two associations have been discussing such a merger for several years. Some of the arrangements around governance have yet to be worked out.
Walsh said the two teams already work from the same building in Brussels, and they have now been merged from an operational standpoint. Manuel Marsilio, who has been CONEBI’s general manager for the last 11 years, is leaving in August, to start another industry position.
CIE’s chief executive added that statutes will be finalized by the end of the year, for the association to be formally launched at the start of 2026.
Walsh said the integrated structure has been named Conebi-CIE on an interim basis. An update should be shared at the CIE Summit in Brussels in October.