Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-11-06-Speech-4-008"
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"en.20031106.1.4-008"2
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"In the automobile industry, a number of painful decisions have been taken recently, and one of those has resulted in very painful consequences for thousands of people in the region where I was elected. They have resulted in nothing short of tragedies, both on a personal level and for the region. This has forced us to examine not only the role of the automobile industry, but also the role of industry as a whole.
I agree with the Commissioner when he states that a company must be able to reach its decisions independently, but I think that companies should also deliver on their promises. If they claim at some stage that investments will be made, then they cannot simply delay these investments, because that is very detrimental to both their workers and the authorities of the region where they are active.
Companies require from the government a stable business climate. I think that we can also ask companies to aim for the highest possible level of stability and transparency: why do they take certain measures and why do they take them at a certain location and not at others? The implications for a region can be very serious indeed and, as Mrs Smet mentioned a moment ago, I think that when we revisit the structural funds, we should, for example, also look at what we can do for the Limburg region. This is, after all, a very badly hit region, which, in fact, also has a very painful history on that score.
We could list a whole host of things. In any case, people say that in the next couple of years, there will be further cutbacks in employment in industry. I think that if you, Commissioner, were to examine the state of the automobile industry, this might be a little late, and if you were to focus on the automobile industry alone, that this might be a little restricted, that you should take a much broader view.
It is often said that we are heading towards a service economy, but I take the view that a service economy without an industrial basis is a very precarious matter, because products and marketing go hand in hand, and the same applies to services. Should we not, therefore, closely examine the developments within the industrial market and the link with the service industry as a matter of urgency? In that way, the European Union does not lose its industry and can match it with a very strong and better manned service industry.
In the European Union, we have previous experience of a situation in which an industry saw its employment dwindle, namely in agriculture, an example with which you, Commissioner, are very familiar. Despite all the measures that we took in that sector – democratic staffing, subsidies, and so on – we have not been able to prevent employment from going down. Let us therefore take a more sensible and global approach this time round than we did then with regard to agriculture."@en1
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