Marchionne, who aims to merge Fiat with Chrysler to boost revenue to more than EUR 100bn in 2014, is relying heavily on the American automaker to increase its performance within the European market, with the group losing in the region of EUR 500m through car sales last year.

Sergio Marchionne, commented: 'It has to be painful, when you are talking about reductions, it’s going to have initially a negative impact on employment. I need a European response, because if you leave it to the national countries, it won’t happen. You have to distribute everything accordingly'.

With Fiat and Chrysler sales having slumped in Europe, Fiat has frozen new investments in the region as well as halting the release of new models. Marchionne has admitted that the automaker is aiming to end losses in Europe by 2014, however, stresses that it may take a couple of years for Fiat, Chrysler and other European manufacturers to restructure their operations. 

Fiat sales in Europe for the first two months of 2012, plummeted by 16% to about 162,000 units, which is recognised by Marchionne as a "weak" start.