Brussels, 06/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 6 February, European Commission Vice-President with responsibility for Industry Antonio Tajani met a delegation of trade unionists representing workers at the ArcelorMittal steel group. They had come to Strasbourg from different European countries to demonstrate and get their demands heard at the Commission and by MEPs meeting for their plenary session. Their mobilisation follows the announcement made on 24 January of closure of part of the ArcelorMittal rolling mills in Liège, with the loss of 1,300 jobs.
This meeting comes shortly after the EP debate on relaunching European industry. During this debate, Tajani presented his strategic guidelines for the future of the steel industry. Just a few hours earlier, ArcelorMittal announced a 10.4% fall in turnover and losses of $3.73 billion. These losses included a $2.2 billion fall in the fourth quarter at its flat carbon steel division in Europe, which includes factories in Florange, France and Liège in Belgium, which has been at the very centre of a number of social questions recently.
It precedes a high-level discussion on the future of the European steel industry, organised in Brussels on 12 February by the European Commission. Participants are expected to include the French, Luxembourg and Walloon ministers for industry, as well as Commissioner Tajani, Commissioner Andor (Employment and Social Affairs), representatives from the European Parliament and unions from ArcelorMittal (Lakshmi Mittal declined the invitation). Recommendations from these discussions will be taken into account by the Commission in iots drafting of a Steel Action Plan to be presented next June.
During the plenary session debate on 4 February, the commissioner was questioned by several MEPs from different political groups who had criticised him for the lack of initiative displayed by the Commission with regard to the Mittal group's strategy. This strategy was criticised for pursuing a purely financial objective and restricting the supply of steel, to artificially keep prices higher. The Greens called on the Commission to hold an investigation into the subject because competition rules had not been respected.
At the same time as the meeting with the commissioner, trade unionists held meetings with different political groups and were expected to meet the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, at the end of the day. (FG/transl.fl)