Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-09-14-Speech-1-101"
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"en.20090914.24.1-101"2
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"Mr President, first of all, I should like to thank the two Commissioners and the Commission for their statements today. It was not self-evident. On 3 August, I wrote a letter, as the announcement that has now been made was already in the offing then, and received a reply from the President of the Commission. It contained nothing new. Today, I have at least heard some clear words from the Commission, through Commissioner Kroes, who states that, no matter what, an in-depth investigation is to be carried out into all the details of this matter.
Commissioner Kroes, I should also like to request that this investigation be carried out on the basis not only of State aid but also on the basis of the rules on competition and of mergers and acquisitions. After all, we are dealing here not only with State aid by the German Government – to the tune of EUR 4.5 billion – but also something that is both merger and acquisition. In this field, the rules on competition are stricter than those on State aid. Since you mainly talked about State aid in your speech, I would ask you to cover both elements in your investigation. After all, with mergers and acquisitions, internal competition between the various plants of the company concerned also plays an extremely important role, of course, whilst State aid mainly concerns the competitive conditions between companies.
I must say, Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, that a dossier involving EUR 4.5 billion in State aid and a private contribution of just EUR 500 million is indeed an eye-opener. Is this still a rescue operation, or is it what I would almost call a nationalisation operation? Be that as it may, there are indications – and it would be good to gather the information on this as quickly as possible – that not only economic but also political motives were decisive in the plan drawn up by Magna together with the German Government. In any case, this should emerge clearly from the investigation. Commissioner Kroes, I would also ask that, at all events, this investigation start quickly – I agree wholeheartedly with Mr Langen on this – and that the information not originate solely from the acquiring party, as a dossier submitted by Magna to the Commission is likely to demonstrate what Magna wants it to demonstrate. It is hard to imagine such a dossier laying bare, as it were, that the competition rules have been breached. Therefore, I think that the Commission must use its competences to obtain information itself from the various Member States concerned – the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, Belgium, and of course Germany – so as to enable an objective investigation. I also believe that the investigation now to be carried out is exceptionally important, as it will set a precedent for the great many other restructuring operations that will be seen in the coming years during this economic and financial crisis and will have to be made subject to the same conditions. That was my first point.
My second point is that, in my personal opinion, the Commission failed to act properly by not immediately taking ownership of the dossier. I think this should actually have happened months ago – incidentally, the first Commission communication dates from February. Where transnational restructuring is concerned, I think that the Commission can take direct action and that it was not such a good idea to leave it to a single country. European solutions are not developed by a single Member State; they must be developed by Community institutions. Therefore, I think that, in the field of industrial policy, the Commission should have played its role better and more quickly.
Thirdly, I think that it must lose no time in presenting an overall restructuring plan for the car industry, as 35% overcapacity cannot simply be eliminated unless we adopt an overall European approach."@en1
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