Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-03-24-Speech-2-409"
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"en.20090324.32.2-409"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, this is now the second occasion in just a few months on which we have come together in the Chamber to discuss the situation of the car industry in Europe. Regretfully, I have to say that the situation has worsened since our last debate.
The European Investment Bank, which I would like to thank very much for its cooperation, is also working on a special programme for the medium-sized companies in the automotive supply industry which have been particularly hard hit by the crisis. We will be making EUR 1 billion available for a research partnership with industry in order to accelerate the move to a low-carbon, energy-efficient economy. This is needed in order to put European industry in a good position for the period after the crisis, so that it can really benefit from the positive development which we are expecting then.
We can also do something on the demand side. A number of Member States have introduced scrappage incentives to stimulate demand. The Commission has laid down guidelines which the Member States must follow for the introduction of incentive programmes of this kind. This is aimed at ensuring that national measures do not have a discriminatory effect or interfere with the internal market. I am pleased to be able to tell you that this has been successful.
Of course, we also need to cushion ourselves from the effects of structural change, keep social costs to a minimum and retain skilled workers in the car industry. If the European automotive industry wants to remain competitive in the long term, some structural changes will be unavoidable. The process will be painful, but it is inevitable. We need a vigorous, competitive industry with significant employment potential, not companies which are permanently dependent on subsidies. The European Commission has made money available from the European Social Fund and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund to support workers who are hardest hit by the temporary effects of the essential restructuring of the industry.
In April we will hold our first round table with representatives of the industry, the workforce and the Member States in order to discuss the social dimension of the crisis and our response to it. However, I would advise companies to provide vocational training now for their employees in order to improve their chances of finding jobs either in the car industry or in other sectors of the economy.
I would like to say something about the situation of a specific manufacturer, General Motors in Europe, which is made up of Opel, Vauxhall and Saab. I would like to repeat at this point that it is not in the interests of Europe to allow this company to go under. More than 200 000 jobs throughout Europe are dependent on the company. I am not of the opinion that the disappearance of General Motors production sites in Europe would help to solve the capacity problem in the European car industry and is therefore to be welcomed. The workers who are affected are not responsible for the crisis within their company. The crisis comes only from America.
There is no national solution to this problem. There is not even a European solution. There can only be a transatlantic solution which involves the parent company. Therefore, it is important for us to know what will happen in the United States. At the moment we do not know. Even the American Government does not yet know. I am pleased that all the European governments with General Motors sites in their countries have agreed not to go it alone, but instead to work together on the European part of the solution. The result of this solution can only be a successor company which is competitive and can survive on the market. In addition, it must be possible to provide economic as well as political justification for the solution. The jobs at General Motors in Europe are too important to allow them to be dragged into elections or the politics of national interest. This is why the Commission will continue to make every effort to find a European solution of this kind.
Finally, the Commission will also ensure that it does not impose any additional financial burdens that could be avoided on the car industry at this difficult time as part of its legislative programme.
The time for talking about the severity of the crisis has passed. We have in place a European plan with coordinated measures both at EU and at Member State level. It is now time to act and to implement these plans in full. Thank you very much.
In the last quarter of 2008, sales of new cars fell by 20% and car production by 29%. This negative trend is continuing in 2009. In January and February of this year, the sales figures dropped by 29% and 18% respectively. The fall would have been larger, if some Member States had not launched successful initiatives to stimulate demand. The crisis is not restricted to the European market. Exports to third countries have been reducing rapidly which means that we can expect a negative impact on the European balance of trade. Throughout the world the car industry is under pressure.
There is no prospect of improvement in the remaining months of this year. Overall production of cars and commercial vehicles in Europe is likely to fall by between 20-30%. This means that around 5 million fewer vehicles will be produced in Europe in 2009 than in 2007. The negative forecast applies in particular to commercial vehicles where a fall in production of 35% is expected.
As you know, the Commission has responded quickly to this situation. In October 2008, we made the first recommendations in the CARS 21 group for overcoming the crisis, including the involvement of the European Investment Bank and the scrappage incentives. At the beginning of January I met with EU finance ministers to agree on a common approach to the crisis. On 25 February the Commission presented a concept which was approved a few days later by the European Council and the Competitiveness Council.
Our responses are aimed directly at the most important causes of this very severe crisis. These causes include rapidly falling demand, difficulty in accessing capital, liquidity problems and structural overcapacity. In the case of structural overcapacity, this is a worldwide phenomenon. What we want to do now is to maintain the integrity of the European internal market, avoid protectionism and preserve the solidarity of the Member States, in order to save jobs in the car industry.
I would like to state very clearly at this point that the industry itself must make the first moves. Within CARS 21 we have established the basic conditions for a forward-looking car industry and are constantly improving them. To be quite clear about this, the European car industry must now make efforts across a broad front to bring the types of cars onto the market which we need at the start of the 21st century, in other words, energy-efficient cars with low fuel consumption, which make careful use of resources.
On the political side, the Commission has made its position clear. In our opinion, the most important task is to enable the financial system to function effectively once again, so that the high level of investment needed by the European car industry can be provided. This high level of investment is necessary because the industry must develop and bring onto the market the European car of the future.
We have adopted the Temporary Community Framework for State aid, which gives the Member States more room for manoeuvre in solving liquidity problems. This was a necessary step to ensure that otherwise profitable companies did not fall victim to the acute effects of the crisis.
In addition, we wanted to ensure that companies continued to invest in research and modernisation, in particular during the crisis. We have made good progress with the measures that we have taken. This year the European Investment Bank has already approved projects for the car industry with a value of more than EUR 3 billion. Further projects with a total value of several billion euro are already being planned for 2009. These projects involve not only car manufacturers, but also suppliers to the car industry."@en1
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