Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-13-Speech-4-123"
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"en.20030313.4.4-123"2
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"Mr President, it is very interesting that our Portuguese colleagues have brought this to our attention and we have had many contributions from them. I want to approach this from a very different perspective.
I must emphasise that I do not defend managements that behave irresponsibly or take state aids and then do not deliver the jobs. If one looks at the state aid conditions – and I have seen some of the applications for my own region – there are plenty of procedures in place for clawing them back. The Portuguese authorities had plenty of ways of doing that. I say to almost all colleagues that have spoken in this debate that they are walking away from the problem. That is why I want to contribute.
I could tell this House every month about cases involving more job losses than we are talking about today: companies that need to restructure, companies that are working in a global market. We have not heard the word 'market' from anyone. I remind you that we work in a market place. Companies have to produce goods that customers can afford to buy, at a profit, otherwise they cannot continue to employ people. We are now living in a global market where companies have to be competitive. It is entirely wrong to claim – as a number of colleagues on the left side of this House have – that every single closure is because a company 'wants to add to its bottom line'. The closures I have seen are because the company wants to survive in business, to continue employing people in high-quality jobs.
I have been into businesses where I have been told, 'This is the component we are making today and this is the one we can now find in China or Indonesia. They are the same quality, but I can buy this fully finished product for the price I paid for the raw material in the United Kingdom.' That is the reality. What are we going to do about it?
Industries that are facing that sort of competition have to look at the ways they can restructure, invest, change the process, introduce research and development. Mr Santos was the first person to mention that. We have funds from the sixth framework programme. We have research funds to put into industries for the complete redesign and reconfiguration of processes. Industries and vulnerable sectors have to start working much better together.
I should like you to pass on to Commissioner Monti, who I believe should be here, the message that we need to encourage industries to work together on reconfiguring their processes in order to make better quality products more competitively and at a better price. I was amazed to see the reference to producing at a lower cost in my resolution had been taken out. Producing goods at a lower cost is crucial
I come from a region where we have a traditional industry, the ceramics industry, that is facing this kind of pressure. That industry is starting to reconfigure and to work together with support from the British Government, using European funds, to tackle these issues.
I went to see a company the other day that makes ceramics in competition with lower cost Portuguese producers. That company has invested EUR 55 million to reconfigure its process. It has had to lose jobs as a result, but it has worked with its trade union to do that. That is the sort of fundamental change we want. That is what the Commission has to encourage. We do not want to have any more tedious debates in this House about state intervention, about criticising managements. If we walk away from the issue and do not make European industry competitive we will continue to have this sort of problem."@en1
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