Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-02-10-Speech-2-322"
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"en.20040210.12.2-322"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, representing a constituency in the North of France, I have indeed had painful experience of steel industry restructuring in my region. In the 1970s and 1980s, brand new factories were closed down. I have to tell you once again this evening: twenty years on, that wound is still open and sore. I therefore feel the current crises particularly keenly, especially that of Terni, where 900 jobs are under threat.
While I was preparing this speech, after reading the motion for a resolution, I re-read my report on steel, which Parliament approved in 1996. At the time, having observed that successive restructuring had cost over 500 000 jobs in twenty years, I was in a position to state that, and I quote item F, ‘the Community steel industry may these days be regarded as generally cost-competitive and technological effective, even though the problem of overcapacity could emerge again in the event of a new crisis’.
Two years later, towards the end of 1998, the industry was struck by a devastating crisis following a market crash in Asia. Since then, we have seen a succession of crises – some small, some large-scale, the result of local or world level restructuring – leading to a catalogue of redundancies. As recently as the beginning of 2003, it was Arcelor and the announcement of thousands of job losses. Today it is Terni and the thousand jobs deemed surplus to requirements.
Without wishing to attribute greater importance to my 1996 report than it deserves, reading it brought back to me the risks that were already bubbling under the surface: unbridled globalisation, American pressure and production at the cost of the social and environmental aspects. It also recalled, however, measures that were needed to prevent further crises – measures in terms of social acquis and social rights, conditions of State aid, training for employees, respect for the environment, diversification, research, new products and the penetration of new markets.
The motion for a resolution before us recalls others, and this proves, unfortunately, that our warnings were not heeded. The Terni situation is symptomatic. This is why we must rein in the great roaring machine, not only because the workers demand it of us, but also because if we let go, then great swaths of the European iron and steel industry will go by the wayside. In this context, despite the efforts and sacrifices of workers in the past, there is a danger that the European Steel Industry will disappear completely, followed swiftly by those industries that use steel products; in the fullness of time, therefore, it will be European industry as a whole that is under threat.
Further proof that there is no such thing as a good economy without a social element, without training and without respect for the workers. In the short-term, some will make a profit, but that is not the issue for us. The issue for us is defending the economy, industry and jobs."@en1
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