Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-19-Speech-5-055"
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"en.19991119.4.5-055"2
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"Mr President, the European Union’s shipbuilding and ship repair industry is facing serious problems, as has been mentioned here, which shows that the recipes provided a few years ago are not giving the promised results. The liberalisation of the industry and the policy of privatisation that has been pursued in various countries have not resolved the existing problems. In the last two years, the situation has grown worse as a result of constant anti-competitive practices – as has already been mentioned here – particularly on the part of South Korea.
Employers’ organisations and employees’ organisations have both drawn attention to the serious consequences of this situation. On 5 November, a day of action was held across Europe in which many dockyard workers in Portugal took part. From Viana do Castelo to Margueira and Mitrena, via dockyards in the areas of Oporto, Aveiro and Figueira da Foz the workers are demanding a policy of upgrading the shipbuilding industry, of protecting jobs that are stable, worthwhile and that offer proper wages and a policy of promoting the exploitation of existing potential.
In order to understand the current situation, we must remember that the 1994 international agreement on the elimination of aid for shipbuilding in the context of the liberalisation of the industry is not being fulfilled. This agreement should have come into force in 1996, but did not do so because it was not ratified by some countries, notably the United States, which was one of its main proponents but which, in the end, chose to continue supporting its own shipbuilding industry, as has also already been said here.
Contrary to what the European Council said in 1998, when it drew up the new rules on aid for shipbuilding, conditions of international competition did not, in the end, improve. Support for the industry has ceased in the European Union but it has continued and even increased in other countries, amongst which South Korea stands out. We know that this country has been concluding contracts at prices that are below the real costs of production, by benefiting from international subsidies via the International Monetary Fund, after the Asian crisis, which is destroying the order books of countries in the European Union, as the industry’s employers’ organisations have stated.
The recent position of the Council on 9 November, despite being too little, too late, naturally shows that the fight put up by the shipbuilding industry is having an effect. It is therefore crucial that the Council and the Member States thoroughly examine the measures that are necessary to protect this very important sector of industry in the European Union. It is important to promote a policy which will stimulate shipbuilding and ship repair and, as is vital in the case of Portugal, to combine this with renewing merchant navy and fishing fleets and, at the same time, to promote the improvement of the living and working conditions of those involved.
It is also vital that the Commission makes this problem and its resolution a priority, that it recognises the need to review long-held positions and that it provides the European Parliament with full information on the damage that the European shipping industry has suffered."@en1
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