Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-354"
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"en.20050223.21.3-354"2
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".
Mr President, I am in full agreement with the substance of what previous speakers have said and would like to make a couple of comments that are fundamentally critical of the business world. What will show the real value of the social pieties constantly recited at EU level and only a couple of weeks ago ceremoniously set down in writing, not only as part of the Lisbon process, but also in the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe? It will be the treatment of Thyssen-Krupp’s workforce at Terni in Umbria, which is a depressed area.
This commitment to the objective of full employment, to social cohesion, to the social responsibilities associated with ownership, to social dialogue – just what is it worth? Is this all no more than a dead letter? Can one simply ignore it all whenever one is overcome by the craving for profit? After all, one will not be punished for it.
That is what we have to resist – the flouting of Europe’s social benefits, which are essential to civilised life and work on this continent of ours, and also essential in terms of our own capacity for competition and innovation. If Europe is to be able to succeed in extending its influence to the rest of the world, its social conscience must not be allowed to slumber.
What is happening at Thyssen-Krupp is also, for us, about putting these things to the test in a practical way. A lot of money from the European Structural and Social Funds has been spent on it; to what extent are the EU Member States and the Commission willing and able to insist on their conditions for the subsidy of businesses actually being kept to? That is something that not only the affected workers and their families can expect; so, too, can taxpayers the length and breadth of Europe, in the interests, among other things, of the future viability of a vital industrial sector – one that was, after all, godfather to Europe’s first community, that of coal and steel. We in the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance will be voting in favour of the resolution."@en1
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