Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-362"
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"en.20050413.22.3-362"2
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".
Mr President, I am delighted to see you in the chair for your first sitting, inasmuch as your appointment to this post is connected to some excellent news for my group and for European socialists: the victory of the socialists in Portugal.
Mr President, Commissioner, like my fellow Member, Mr Henin, I am one of the authors of this question to the Commission. A few weeks ago, we received here a delegation of employees of the Alstom group made up of representatives of both French and German trade unions from the two sites of this subsidiary that specialises in boilers. These workers are now affected by the announcement made by their management on 16 February 2005, of the closure of the company or, at any rate, of major cuts in jobs and activities, both in Stuttgart and in Vélizy: 150 jobs out of 350 will be lost in Stuttgart, and 150 out of 200 in Vélizy. This means that, in the end, these two sites will probably be doomed.
A few months ago, on 7 July 2004, the European Commission approved aid granted by France to Alstom subject to strict disvestment conditions but with the aim, not only of re-establishing sound competition conditions, but also of safeguarding the long-term future of the Alstom industry and of its various subsidiaries. The subsidiary Alstom Power Boiler, as has already been mentioned, is a company that specialises in the construction of power station boilers. It is a technological leader in Europe, and in the world, in a number of fields, particularly in difficult and clean combustion and CO2 capture.
From the point of view of the European Union’s priorities in terms of the Lisbon strategy, which we have debated recently and which will serve to ensure that Europe develops its competences and its technology and becomes the most competitive economy in the world, and also from the point of view of our objectives with regard to sustainable development and clean energy, this company is a strategic tool, and the fact is that, obviously, many jobs depend on it.
That is what justified the agreement given by the Commission in July 2004 to a considerable quantity of aid: EUR 3 billion granted by France to the Alstom group to help with its restructuring. In its final decision, the Commission stated that, with regard to the Power Generation and Transport sectors, the restructuring plan was adequate to ensure industrial recovery. It considered the planned job cuts to be proportional to the level of over-capacity in these industries, and felt that the estimates of the costs of this restructuring and of the saving that would result seemed realistic.
Today, though, the group’s management is going beyond the job cuts announced at that time, and is going beyond the disvestments to which it committed itself. Consequently, I think that the European Commission needs to take an interest in the decisions that have just been taken by the management of the Alstom group. Indeed, as the Commission is always very scrupulous with regard to compliance with the competition rules after aid has been granted, it must be equally scrupulous with regard to the consequences for employment. After all, unless I have misunderstood, Commissioner, it seems to me that the ultimate justification for granting aid for the restructuring of a business is to keep this activity going, particularly and ultimately because it makes it possible to save jobs, because it generates a multitude of benefits, tax revenue, etc., but above all because it makes it possible to save jobs.
The Commission cannot be hemiplegic – it cannot, having granted aid, only look at the effects on competition and respect for competition. It must also ensure that this aid actually does contribute to maintaining activities and employment on all sites, insofar as it was indeed decided, when this aid was approved in July 2004, that the planned job cuts were adequate and that it is therefore not justified to go beyond that. We are therefore now counting on the Commission to ensure that jobs are safeguarded and that the two sites in question are not closed down."@en1
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