Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-29-Speech-3-124"
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"en.20061129.15.3-124"2
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".
Mr President, to begin with, I should like to take this opportunity to greet a sizeable delegation in the visitors' gallery of workers from Volkswagen's Forest plant, officials from all the trade unions in the plant and representatives of subcontracting companies.
A large contingent from my group visited the occupied plant yesterday and engaged in lengthy talks with the workforce and union representatives. What emerged from these talks?
The first and foremost requirement, Commissioner, is to save the jobs at that location. The European Union is in a quandary for want of an industrial policy. As Mr Jonckheer has reminded us, the crisis in the European car industry is nothing new. Vilvorde happened ten years ago, and since then other plants have been closed or threatened with closure.
What has been done in the fields of research and investment policy and in the pursuit of balanced regional development? What efforts have been made to ensure that workers are trained and jobs safeguarded, to develop the clean, reliable and affordable cars that are in demand today and to diversify the economic fabric and increase the number of secure, skilled and properly paid jobs? The large manufacturing groups have been given their head in the name of sacrosanct free-market economics and unbridled competition. The immediate duty of everyone, including the European Union, is therefore to act to save these jobs at the Forest plant, not only for the workforce of the Volkswagen group but also for the 8 000 employees of subcontracting businesses. Mr Henin will pick up that point in a moment.
Secondly, if this mass mobilisation should fail, raising the issue of compensation, the Volkswagen group must be formally bound to meet its responsibilities to the full. The trade-union leaders reminded us in detail of the long list of public aid in the form of diverse exemptions that have been granted in respect of this plant to a group which, incidentally, has seen its profits rise sharply over the past two years, at least sharply enough to enable it to announce yesterday that it planned to invest hundreds of millions in Asia. In addition, it goes without saying that the European Union should contribute to the compensation.
At the heart of this affair, however, we see the need for structural changes in the economic strategy being pursued in the name of what the Commission calls a competitive Europe in a globalised economy, which, in plain words, means cutting wage costs, introducing flexible working conditions, creating 'shareholder value', in other words windfalls for shareholders, pitting workers against each other and using the threat of relocation to blackmail public authorities.
This takes us to the very core of the celebrated liberal Europe, from which more and more Europeans feel totally alienated, and with good reason. Only a break with this line of approach can open the door to a socially responsible Europe and enable us to win back the trust of our fellow citizens. Mr Barroso often makes the case for a Europe that gets results. Europe in its present state delivers results such as this one at Volkswagen Forest. We could do with more Europe, a trade unionist told us, but it is a different Europe that we need. This demand will surely be expressed forcefully in the streets of Brussels on Saturday."@en1
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