Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-23-Speech-2-239"
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"en.20030923.6.2-239"2
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".
Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank the European Parliament for inviting me this evening. I am always pleased to be offered the opportunity to examine competition policy issues with Parliament in greater depth, issues relating to which, incidentally, I have the honour to appear periodically before the Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
Since France had agreed not to automatically acquire a stake in Alstom’s capital and had promised that it would no longer present the Commission with a
there was no longer any need for me to exercise the power given me by the college of Commissioners to order a suspension. So that is the decision the Commission did not take.
The Commission is pleased with the constructive attitude taken by French authorities and in particular, I would like to stress, by Mr Francis Mer, the Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry. It was our duty to prevent the conditions of competition on the market from being immediately and irreversibly changed in Alstom’s favour before the Commission had even been able to begin looking at the effect of the aids on the markets in question. The changes made would probably have entailed an increase in the overall amount of aid granted. This shows the knock-on effect of a capital increase and its irreversible effects. In other words, it would never have been possible to restore the
. I would like to point out that the amount of aids will also be one of the key factors that the Commission will take into account when examining the matter in depth.
The fact that it is not necessary to implement the suspending injunction does not, of course, at this stage mean that the Commission has approved the aids. The measures as a whole are now going to be examined. We will be able to undertake the in-depth scrutiny in a constructive spirit and will do so as quickly as the complexity of the matter allows. The aim is to enable the undertaking to be restructured while at the same time preserving the proper working of the internal market, which is the only guarantee of sustainable employment. In the course of its assessment, the Commission will check the undertaking’s long-term viability and the proportionality between the amount of aid granted and what France will be willing to accept in return in order to preserve the conditions of competition on the markets in question.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to emphasise that there is absolutely no position of principle involved on the part of the Commission concerning the system of ownership of undertakings in the Member States. You know as well as I do that the Treaty provides for and therefore imposes on us the strictest neutrality in the matter of public or private ownership of undertakings. I am therefore very much aware that the suspension was not designed to prevent the French state’s entry into Alstom’s capital as such. The Commission’s desire was to prevent aid-constituting measures from producing irreversible consequences on the markets in question without the Commission’s prior approval, that is in violation of the rules of the Treaty concerning state aid.
Please do not let it be said that the Commission is against the public ownership of undertakings. As I have always stressed, it is not the Commission that asks a Member State to open the capital of public undertakings like the French Government is doing with
for example. Those choices are entirely up to the Member State concerned. What the Commission does have a duty to do under the Treaties is to ensure that undertakings, whether public or private, comply with the competition rules.
As I said, I would like to stress the quality of our cooperation, based on a constructive spirit and one of confidence, with the French Government and Minister Mer in particular. Some of the reactions and remarks heard from French political and economic circles recently would benefit from a more detached analysis. I understand the feelings of the trade unions perfectly. I am well aware of the Alstom Group’s importance in the European industrial and social fabric. On the other hand, I find it harder to understand the reference made here and there recently in the French debate to the European Commission acting like a lawyer and allegedly having no political awareness.
Can people not see the political value of preserving a single market with no distortions of competition, a necessary, not sufficient, true, but necessary part of a social market economy? Can they not see the political merit of preventing a State from bypassing the rules of the single market the chief beneficiaries of which are European undertakings themselves and the possibilities for growth, including growth in employment? Can they not see the political necessity of inspiring confidence in Europe as a whole by demonstrating to the citizens of the small and future Member States that the Commission, in its role of guardian of the Treaty, is not strict with the small ones and weak with the big ones?
The subject of your invitation this evening, Madam President, is a specific file which is currently under examination and about which I must therefore observe a measure of discretion. Within those limits, I am at your disposal to provide the explanations that will be asked of us.
What has the European Commission done about the Alstom file so far? It has taken a decision and it has decided not to take another. The decision to initiate the review procedure regards the support measures adopted by the French State on 2 August under an agreement with Alstom and a number of banks then the Commission was notified. This decision to initiate this procedure was taken by the college on 17 September. That was a perfectly normal decision.
I come now to the decision that was not taken. It concerns one specific part of the support plan that was decided and announced on 2 August but has not yet been put into effect: state participation in Alstom’s capital.
The Commission was unable to agree to an immediate participation by the French Republic in Alstom’s capital because a measure of that kind, unlike other contributions of liquid assets, was likely to have irreversible consequences for the markets on which the Alstom Group is active.
On 17 September, the Commission therefore found that the conditions were such that the French authorities should be asked not to go ahead with a State holding in Alstom’s capital. The Commission, however, wanted to give France one last opportunity before proceeding with that injunction. It therefore authorised me to adopt and execute, by 22 September at the latest and by agreement with President Prodi, an injunction for the suspension of certain aids unless the French authorities publicly agreed not to take measures automatically and irreversibly entailing a State holding in the capital of the Alstom Group without the Commission’s prior approval as required by the Community rules concerning State aids.
Following speedy and fruitful contacts with the French authorities, I was able to note yesterday that they had agreed to amend the support plan in a way that satisfies the Commission’s condition.
The French state will not therefore become an Alstom shareholder in the immediate future and will not adopt any measures likely to constitute equity capital, that is structural measures to which the Commission cannot agree without prejudicing the findings of the competition inquiry it will be conducting.
The state participation in the capital increase will be replaced by a fixed-term floating-rate note redeemable in shares. It is a liquidity measure that may be converted into equity only if the Commission decides that the state participation in the capital increase presents no problems for competition on the markets in question."@en1
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