Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-139"
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"en.20000217.5.4-139"2
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"Mr President, earlier this week President Prodi announced that one of the Commission’s strategic objectives for the next five years would be to aim for full employment. He acknowledged that 15 million Europeans are currently looking for work and that unemployment is the main source of poverty and social exclusion. What is more, the Portuguese Presidency sees the fight against unemployment as top priority. Yet, all too often these political priorities are invisible in everyday policies.
The Commission’s decision to allow the ABB-Alsthom merger to go ahead is a case in point. The new company has announced its intention to initiate a restructuring plan with the aim of making savings. This global restructuring plan could lead to the loss of up to 12 000 jobs. In my region of the UK in particular the employment consequences of this merger have been severe as a result of ABB-Alsthom having announced that it was cutting 270 jobs in Britain with 95 jobs being lost in Stafford and 112 in Rugby. The company’s failure to inform the works council about the proposals for the merger is particularly worrying. It is especially important in the case of large international companies where decisions are taken far from the employee.
Point 17 of the Community Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers stresses the need for consultation, adding that this shall apply especially in companies having establishments in two or more Member States. I do not think it is simply a matter of a Community charter. EU legislation on this issue could not be clearer. The Commission would do well in this sort of situation to make its decisions not simply on the basis of whether a merger will distort competition but also on the basis of the social and economic consequences. We need more joined-up policy making on these issues. What we also need urgently is an impact assessment study on the effect of merger in every situation. This is the only way of respecting Article 127 of the Treaty.
I welcome the statement made by Commissioner Liikanen, but I also look for the support of this Parliament to ensure that the legislation which we have passed on workers’ rights is implemented rigorously and to ensure that impact assessments on the workforce for proposed mergers are undertaken as a matter of course."@en1
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