Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-11-15-Speech-4-024"
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"en.20011115.2.4-024"2
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"Mr President, faced with the social catastrophe which the collapse of Sabena represents for Belgium, I should like to add a little humanity to this sitting, by dedicating my first words to all those who, from one day to the next, found themselves, to put it bluntly, deprived of their jobs. I would ask those who would seek to use this specific issue in order to criticise public enterprises to measure well the responsibilities of all those concerned. Yes, Europe is responsible when, along with the Commission, certain parties urge rapid, inhumane and brutal liberalisation, and yes, Europe now appears to everyone to be the real driving force behind this process. People no longer want this kind of Europe. They now want to construct with us a social Europe, the Europe that we defended at Lisbon, which develops convergence indicators in order to increase employment and combat unemployment, in other words a Europe which refuses to be dictated to by the market. The 12 000 Sabena workers who were dismissed at the beginning of this month are the first victims of this wave of liberalisation in civil aviation. The results of other European companies are giving cause for concern. Thousands of people are afraid of being thrown out of work, and they cannot understand the intransigence of the European Commission over repayment times for bridging loans to the Belgian company, while the United States are spending billions of dollars on subsidising their national airlines so that they can keep their European slots. They find it unacceptable that the Commission should give preference to sanctions and ukases, in the name of the virtues of liberalism and the market, while at the same time that out-of-control liberalism culminates in companies in Europe closing down one after the other. By setting up the Lisbon process, the Community authorities and the Member States have proved that they are capable of taking into account the human and territorial consequences implied by every decision. Such blind liberalisation will do nothing to advance the cause of the European idea or to increase confidence in Europe’s institutions and in our plans for peace and social progress. It will inevitably lead the public to reject this European and simplistic vision.
Commissioner, the European Parliament’s vote on the Langen report two days ago, confirmed that there are certain sectors that should not be open to competition, and among those sectors are the sectors with which you are concerned. Let us be clear about this, we do not reject the idea of modern and efficient public enterprises, and we do not want them to be sacrificed and ridiculed. We are waiting for a forward-looking vision of economic development, a project which is humane and intelligent, and which will enable sustainable development to be achieved. I hope that that is what we shall see on 3 December."@en1
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