Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-08-Speech-1-139"
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"en.20100208.15.1-139"2
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"Following the closure of Opel Antwerp, the question arises as to what scope remains for industrial policy. General Motors is a company that has lost its competitiveness as a result of the excessive pension costs exacted by American trade unions. The centre of American car manufacturing has already shifted to the southern United States, where the trade unions are weaker, and this includes German and Japanese car manufacturers.
General Motors is an illustration of what happens if labour costs become too high. The Flemish economist Geert Noels said recently that labour costs in Belgium have risen sharply since 2000; which, incidentally, was during the government of Mr Verhofstadt, who is present here today. In Germany, labour costs have been falling since the same period. Noels believes this is the reason for the closure of Opel Antwerp. Industrial policy requires that we maintain our competitiveness, Mr Staes.
Let us look to the future for once. What is the situation with the chemical industry in Flanders? It employs 64 000 directly and a hundred thousand indirectly: well over 160 000 people earn their living from the chemical industry. Recently, however, the German chemical company Bayer decided to relocate from Antwerp, and that is a bad omen. The car industry must also contend with the consequences of an anti-car policy propagated by the Greens. One cannot demand an anti-car policy whilst also demanding that car plants be left open. Cars are being rendered unaffordable, as people should be taking the bus. Cars are becoming too expensive for people on lower incomes. The result is that less cars are being sold, and now look at Opel Antwerp.
The chemical industry has to contend with European climate policy. Now that the conference in Copenhagen has failed, will Europe start to go it alone in reducing its CO
emissions by 20% by 2020? That would put paid to the Flemish chemical industry in the same way as high labour costs have put paid to Opel Antwerp. Madam President, an end to the Flemish chemical sector would be Opel Antwerp times 54. If Flanders neglects its chemical sector, it will become Greece on the North Sea, as the Flemish entrepreneur Thomas Leysen put it, and I hope my Flemish friends take note of this."@en1
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