Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-09-14-Speech-1-102"
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"en.20090914.24.1-102"2
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"Mr President, Commissioners Špidla and Kroes, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, we should try to keep in mind, once again, that we in the European Parliament, even if we are arguing in the Opel case at the moment and this perhaps represents a wider disagreement about the future of the European car industry, are actually all united by our concern for the future of jobs in this sector in the European Union.
Germany’s actions should not be attacked so strongly at this point – much as they need to be examined. Instead, the governments of the other Member States of the European Union whose production sites are affected by the GM crisis – in other words, the governments of Poland, Spain, Belgium, the United Kingdom and so on – should get together and consider, along with the Germans, how to make something out of this worst of situations and how it is possible to secure the future of the jobs of the affected people in the factories. I think that would be a better approach to take.
As I say, I believe that we are all united by anxiety concerning the future of jobs in the car industry and I have to say that Commissioner Špidla is absolutely right to say that, despite months of discussions in Brussels and again and again here in Strasbourg and back home in the Member States, the debate is still not where it needs to be. We talk, repeatedly, about how we have major structural overcapacities in the industry, yet we do not truly have the heart to actually set the course and put our backing behind how we want to lead this sector politically away from these structural overcapacities. We have beginnings, which is a very good thing, I think.
In many contexts, including in the context of State interventions, we talk about future-ready cars, which is to say, cars that should be climate-friendly and efficient and which should have different, future-ready engines. If I am honest, however, I do not believe, in view of the trends in the market, that this will be enough to secure as many jobs in the car industry in the future as we have in the industry today. For that reason, the future must at least be discussed in terms of the future of the mobility sector and we must be bold enough to actually now, in these times of crisis, discuss transformations and also act more consistently.
It is very much right to point out, however, that there really has been no thought put into making the sector future-ready as part of the support scheme for Opel in Germany. In theory, that means modern, future-ready cars. What about the public transport sector, though? How do we get to a position where, in future, we have better, climate-friendly public transport systems? Who will build better buses, better trains and better lorries in future? Who will ensure that there is a conceptual link between this sector and the information technologies and renewable energies sector? These issues have been raised again and again, but never thought through to the end, let alone moulded into political concepts.
I would like to use this debate, right now, as the new Parliament begins its work, as the occasion to say that we really must tackle this. We really must dare to do much more in this regard, or else we will make ourselves jointly responsible for unparalleled job losses that we will be completely unable to repair with public funds later on.
Brussels cannot just criticise Germany or other governments. We have to have the courage at this point to appraise our own investment policies. At least EUR 4.4 billion has flowed into the car industry over recent months via favourable loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB). Not a single euro that has been pumped into the car industry from this pot, Commissioner Špidla, was linked to requirements for such a transformation of the car industry or the mobility sector to make them future-ready."@en1
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