Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-13-Speech-2-299"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20010313.16.2-299"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:translated text |
".
Mrs Kinnock, as you know, most of these job losses at Corus in Wales affect the plant at Newport and the sheet steel factory which are, respectively, in the Objective 2 region, East Wales, and the Objective 1 region, West Wales and The Valleys. The factory at Shotton, where there will also be redundancies, is also in the Objective 3 region, East Wales.
Some weeks ago, in a press release dated 2 February 2001, when this problem began to be more serious, the Commission announced that it was willing to discuss any proposal, as soon as the National Assembly of Wales and the other parties involved decided that the European Union’s programmes must be refocused and redeployed to take account of developments in this situation. In the same press release, I also clearly stated that even if the current programmes could be refocused or redeployed, there is no possibility of the EU making extra funds available, either within the rules of the Structural Funds or of other policies.
The answer given to you was the same answer that I gave in relation to the recent natural disaster in Portugal and with regard to the earthquake in Greece. We do not have a budgetary line to cope with exceptional and unexpected costs, but we can and do redeploy funds and packages to the affected regions.
On 28 February, our departments met with a delegation from the National Assembly of Wales. The proposals that were considered on that occasion relate to aid for professional training, business development, site renovation, support for communities, infrastructure aid and as part of these discussions, we hope to receive more detailed proposals on the basis for regional partnership.
I should like to add, Mrs Kinnock, that aid from the European Social Fund may be granted using the Objective 1 single programming document, which covers the West Wales and The Valleys region and represents EUR 591 million. The East Wales region is covered by the Objective 3 programme, which receives a budget of EUR 132 million. Both these programmes contain measures which can relate to training, the professional retraining of those made redundant, as well as measures designed to help staff with ongoing training. Lastly, the Commission also has resources from the ECSC budget until July 2002. A payment of this type could be granted on an individual basis to redundant steelworkers to help them train for other employment. The amounts are not huge but they do, nonetheless, come to a maximum of EUR 3000 per person and the Member State in question is obliged to contribute the same amount.
These are the details that I wanted to give you in addition to the Commission press release that I issued on 2 February 2001."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples