Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-09-23-Speech-2-242"
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"en.20030923.6.2-242"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, let us be clear about this, the Alstom affair, in its European dimension, is first of all a matter of form. The Commission was perfectly right to sanction the French Government for the arrogance and contempt for the common rules which it has demonstrated in this affair. This incident is only part of a long series of incidents. The way in which Mr Raffarin’s government openly flouted the provisions of the Stability Pact, even though President Chirac had been one of its initiators and unconditional supporters, will make it difficult to renegotiate that pact, something that even Mr Prodi himself describes as stupid. There are other examples, such as the Raffarin government’s contempt for the Directive on the conservation of wild birds and the Natura 2000 Directive, which resulted in the massacre in the wetlands of Poitou. The icing on the cake is Mr Raffarin’s statement in which he talks about the legal requirements for the executive authority of the European Union as if it were some office in a foreign country. For this shameful statement I should like, on behalf of the great majority of French people who are aware of the fact that Europe is not a foreign country but rather our joint home, to offer our apologies to the Commission.
Agreement has been reached today, and in this I rejoice. It will make it possible to save Alstom from imminent bankruptcy, something for which the directors, and those of ABB, are entirely responsible, despite warnings from their union members. It will give the French Government and the Commission time to negotiate formally a final solution. Having said that, Competition Commissioner, I should like to say a few words about the substance of this affair.
You are aware that our group, the Greens, has loyally supported your efforts to defend consumers against the abusive practices of monopolies. My report on competition in 2001 bears witness to that fact. Nevertheless, I made certain observations which we have discussed in detail face to face, not only between Commissioner and MEP, but also between one economist and another. The Alstom affair once again gives me the opportunity to tell you this.
Consumer protection consists, first of all, in guaranteeing consumers the existence of the supply of goods or services, before even thinking about the price of those goods or services. In other words it consists in implementing an industrial policy. The disappearance of Alstom, which would have caused the collapse of Asean Brown Boveri, would have greatly reduced the European supply of electricity turbines and high-speed trains, just at the time when the climate crisis and the Kyoto Agreement are calling for enormous investment in these two areas.
Then again, what applies in the case of network infrastructures, where economic theory shows that monopolies and public subsidies are sometimes preferable to pure competition, often applies
to the oligopoly which is responsible for constructing and maintaining those networks.
Finally, the brutal way in which the Raffarin Government was put in its place was perceived by the employees and the people who live in the regions concerned as a piece of brutality and inhumanity directed against them personally by a Europe which is once again being experienced as a foreign and hostile institution. In the final analysis the position of the Raffarin Government means privatising profits and nationalising losses. I do not approve of that and neither do you. You need to be able to demonstrate that European competition policy is aimed at keeping excessive profits in check and promoting the supply of public goods."@en1
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