Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-15-Speech-4-021"
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"en.20011115.2.4-021"2
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"Madam President, the bankruptcy of the Belgian airline company Sabena a few days ago is not only the biggest bankruptcy in Belgian history, but it is first and foremost a human and social tragedy for between approximately 7 500 and 12 000 workers. It has already been said, and it is obvious, that Sabena is not an isolated incident. There are a huge number of airline companies that are going through very difficult times, and the events of 11 September have only made matters worse. I am aware of this, but with regard to Sabena, it has to be said that the President-in-Office of the Council, Mrs Durant, has kept two fundamental facts from this Parliament.
Firstly, Sabena has been continuously loss making for the last 40 years, except for one year, and that was probably thanks to an accountancy trick. For the past 40 years, the taxpayers have had to inject no less than BEF 62 billion into that company.
Secondly, the cause. Sabena was a Belgian public company with all the hallmarks of the Belgian State and of the
. That translated into political profiteering, political appointments of the manifestly incompetent and political interference by the Belgian Royal House to keep the company in French-speaking hands. For that reason, the alliance with KLM was sabotaged. Everyone knows that in my country. In fact, parliament is currently setting up a parliamentary inquiry committee in order to scrutinise years of mismanagement, and, in my country, this is saying something. We are all agreed that the airline industry is having a bumpy ride, and we must find a solution in Europe on the basis of a policy of “Europe first” as long as the Americans are putting “America first”. However, in the Sabena dossier, we must first of all identify those responsible, notably in the Belgian Royal House and in the successive Belgian Governments."@en1
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