Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-13-Speech-2-105"
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"en.20010213.5.2-105"2
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".
Mr President, as the honourable Members have said, some of the directives were obviously adopted in times of full employment and very slow change. Certain parts of the legislative framework therefore need amending and changing. But I think that we should acknowledge the attempt being made in Europe to strike a balance between competitiveness and social cohesion. Restructuring, mergers and takeovers do indeed often have dramatic consequences. We recently saw over 5 000 jobs lost in a single month as the result of takeovers. But if we look at the competitive environment as a whole, if we look at the environment in which European companies operate, then we will realise that there would be very adverse consequences if there were no reorganisation or restructuring, if European companies did not take an active part in the business economy. And we need to calculate how many jobs are saved every time, because unless they restructure, some sectors risk disappearing altogether in the future.
In this extremely difficult environment, there are four strands to our efforts to combine social cohesion and competitiveness.
The first is forecasting. This morning we examined how, through the Dublin Institute, we are trying to study, forecast and prepare changes. The second is the legislative and institutional framework. As you know, huge changes were made this year to legislation on the European company statute and to the five directives which follow and complete the legislative framework on the European statute, and the directive on information and consultation finally went to the Council after years of discussion between Parliament and the Commission and we achieved a majority within four months. We reckon that, with the undertakings made by the Swedish Presidency and following the Belgian Presidency, significant changes will be made to the legislative framework. I should point out here that legislation alone is not enough and that serious efforts have been made to extend controls. We are also endeavouring, in cooperation with Commissioner Monti, to check that the directives on information for workers are being properly applied during all mergers and takeovers. In addition, a committee was recently set up within this legislative framework, one of the basic subjects of which is social dialogue and the role of social dialogue in helping to ensure that mergers and restructuring proceed smoothly.
The third strand is specific policy. The strategy on employment and the availability of money from the Social Fund mean that problems of mass redundancies can be dealt with at national level, by retraining workers, through special structures to support their reintegration into the job market or by helping them start up their own companies.
Finally, the fourth strand is the role of companies, the social responsibility of companies. This is one of the new basic items on the social agenda; we expect workers to change, to agree to a new, flexible environment, to train, to be prepared to move from one sector to another or one place to another. But we cannot just ask workers to change their behaviour, which is why companies too have a new role in this area. We are trying very specifically to define – and the second stage will be to look at this from an institutional point of view – to define the social responsibility of companies, their responsibilities in the wake of restructuring and their responsibilities in the local area, in the society in which they operate, which is why, as we said this morning, a Commission communication will be presented at the end of June."@en1
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