Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-13-Speech-3-361"
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"en.20050413.22.3-361"2
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".
Mr President, the issue of Alstom Power Boiler has left us all with our backs to the wall with respect to our commitment to create a Europe of full employment, with a strong high-tech industry, a Europe that cares about the environment, a Europe that is free from the technological and financial domination of the United States.
What is this about? A subsidiary of the Alstom group, whose creative, research and production resources are established in Europe – 250 employees in France, in Vélizy, 300 in Germany, in Stuttgart, and a number of plants in the Czech Republic, Portugal and Poland – but whose headquarters are in the United States, in Connecticut. This company’s expertise is in the manufacture of boilers for generating steam and electricity. It is the world leader in the production of clean coal and is developing new technologies for CO2 capture. With the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the need to diversify energy sources, it is clear that such technologies have huge potential. However, for reasons that are unclear, the management of Alstom has decided to transfer the European expertise to the United States, to reduce the workforce in Vélizy by four fifths and to halve that in Stuttgart, probably with the aim of eventually closing the main European sites. The pretext for this siphoning-off of European expertise was a pseudo-study carried out – what a surprise – by the Americans, announcing that the market was expected to shrink by a third over the next four years.
Following the example of the employees of Power Boiler, we cannot take this study seriously, especially when we know the enormous demand in this field that is emerging throughout the world. As they say in my country, though, when you want to kill your dog, you accuse it of having rabies. A lack of a real long-term industrial strategy, a frantic scramble for immediate profits, those have been the main characteristics of the Alstom Group since it was privatised. The Commission, and also the French Government, must also take some of the responsibility.
Fortunately, the employees at the European sites affected, supported by their trade unions, have not thrown in the towel. The employees in Vélizy, in particular, have come up with a counterplan based around withdrawing the company from the Alstom group for a sales price in the region of one symbolic euro, creating a European public limited-liability company grouping together the Vélizy and Stuttgart sites and retaining the plants in the Czech Republic, Poland and Portugal. This plan is based on the voluntary participation of the employees. It has the advantage of fitting in with the demands of 7 July 2004 drawn up by the European Commission with regard to Alstom on the subject of the disposal of assets, the aim being to safeguard and increase employment and European technological potential compared to the United States. This cooperation between European employees is at the forefront of the application of European law, as it will result in the creation of a European public limited-liability company. We must work fast, though, as the company’s intellectual property is on the way to being transferred to the United States and Switzerland and Alstom’s general management is working to put the company in financial difficulties.
If, ladies and gentlemen, we are committed to the growth of industry and employment, we must do all we can to support this initiative. It is true that the directive on European public limited-liability companies and the regulation on the involvement of employees in corporate governance have not yet been transposed into French law, but it is always possible to look ahead. It is a question of political will and I expect the Commission to show this will. So, let us not disappoint these workers, whose jobs are threatened but who are so proud of their unparalleled technical achievements and are always ready to innovate."@en1
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