Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-17-Speech-4-135"
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"en.20000217.5.4-135"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, as far as restructuring goes, there is no doubt that European companies must adapt so that they are better placed to face new challenges or go under. We are well aware of this current economic context and that the purpose of restructuring is to rationalise corporate management.
Although it is laudable from an economic point of view to make structural changes in order to be more competitive and win market shares, this approach may be reprehensible if it is made at the request of financiers, often shareholders, with the sole unavowed aim of increasing the financial standing of the company in order to raise profits which they can then withdraw from the company. The various recent announcements referred to by previous speakers, be they by Michelin or Goodyear, are symptomatic in this respect.
Rationalised management and improved profits should, in my view, serve the company and hence its employees first and foremost, and any financial benefits should follow. However, what we witnessing today is the phenomenon of concentration and corporate regrouping and relocation, with all the familiar consequences, both on the quality of products and at the social level, especially in terms of unemployment, difficult working conditions and increased flexibility: consequences which have a drastic effect at the human level, especially on the family unit.
There is a very real risk of seeing a two-headed monster emerge on this planet, with poor countries providing the labour and rich countries providing the capital. Surely Europe should act as a safeguard, maintaining a certain equilibrium between increased profitability and social welfare? We must not forget that it is human resources which make a company function at its base and guarantee it good results.
Finally, allow me to remind you that the third letter of the EDD Group to which I belong stands for ‘difference’. Europe has a duty to make its voice heard as an alternative to savage restructuring for profit at all costs. Without doubt, the voice of difference in this monotonous flood of restructuring."@en1
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