Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-13-Speech-2-071"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20010213.3.2-071"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, faced with massive mergers and industrial restructuring resulting in thousands of redundancies, many employees, many European citizens, have found Europe to be powerless if not actually colluding with these actions, in line with the law of free competition. It is high time that we provided means to intervene on behalf of employees. There is an intolerable contradiction between the Council and the Commission’s declared priority of promoting employment and the massive redundancies that big businesses are making, and who are, at the same time, making fantastic profits.
Michelin, Moulinex, Danone and Alstom are not businesses experiencing difficulties. They are perfectly competitive, and have a record of making more than adequate profits, but they are laying off thousands of people nonetheless. The case of Danone is very instructive, making 3 000 people redundant in Europe and 1 700 in France. In the year 2000, this firm’s European installations made a net profit of EUR 795 million, or 17% more than in 1999. It is not possible to sit back and simply watch the unfolding spectacle of mergers that make men and women redundant, plunging entire families into chaos.
The European citizenship we so often refer to in this society will continue to be nothing more than just so much hot air as long as employees are not properly informed and consulted on choices which determine their own future and that of their region and their country. How, furthermore, can we find it acceptable for groups to benefit from grants of public financial aid to promote employment without being obliged to comply with the commitments they have made? In such instances, the aid funds should be paid back to the community which will have to bear the social costs resulting from the choice of financial profitability over employment.
I do not think that the problem boils down to employability or adaptability or to simply dealing with the social fallout, as the Commissioner suggested. I therefore endorsed the proposals made in the resolution as well as the amendments that clarify and strengthen certain aspects. We shall have to go much further to respond to the democratic demands of the working citizens of Europe. I therefore feel that rights should be developed to the point where it is possible to halt scheduled redundancies and ongoing mergers. Any merger contract must include social clauses. Penalties must also be introduced for failure to comply with the directives on worker consultation.
At this time when there is a great deal of debate on the subject of European identity and the direction that European integration should be taking, I feel that a text specifying certain employee rights in the face of financial objectives would be the least that could be done so as to give the European Union a degree of credibility. I shall therefore vote in favour of the resolution which I hope will be enhanced by a number of amendments."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples