Strasbourg, 23/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - In second reading on Tuesday under the codecision procedure, the European, Parliament gave its opinion on the Directive on worker information and consultation. Rapporteur Fiorella Ghilardotti (Democratici di sinistra, Italy) observed that the dossier had been on the drawing board since 1998 (when the European Commission unveiled its "good proposal" on which the Parliament had given its views in April 1999 but it was not until June 2001 that the Council had adopted its common position). Ms Ghilardotti displayed a degree of flexibility (recognised by the German Christian Democrat Winfried Menrad, who pointed out that she had accepted some of his group's amendments at the Committee stage) in terms of the sanctions to be applied when the Directive is violated. Ms Ghilardotti explained that this was the trickiest part of the Directive and had caused all the lobby groups to explode into action, signalling that she had dropped the idea of giving EU sanctions legal status in order to respect subsidiarity and allow Member States to decide which sanctions would apply in their state, as long as they are effective, proportionate and act as a deterrent. Danish MEPs (such as Anne Elisabet Jensen from the Liberal group, who noted, however, that she did not agree 100% with sanctions) were particularly pleased with her flexibility. On a more general note, Ms Jensen noted that the Danish position in the Council did not reflect reticence but the desire to keep the Danish factory council system that had been working successfully since 1960. Dutch Social Democrat Ieke van den Berg also stressed that her country had had successful works council legislation for fifty years and found it "rather odd" that the British Conservatives wanted longer transition periods before the Directive comes into force (Ms Ghilardotti had commented that she didn't see the need for any transition period).
French Green member Hélène Flautre, on the other hand, stressed in this respect the importance of "simultaneous" application of the directive in all Member States. She noted that "employees do not, by definition, have less of an entrepreneurial spirit" than employers. It is not a matter of preventing restructuring, but of preventing "commando" actions, as in the case of Renault in Vilvoorde, exclaimed Winfried Menrad. French Communist Sylviane Ainardi was mainly opposed to the provisions of the directive that, in some cases, would allow companies not to keep the obligation to inform workers.
British Conservative Philip Rodnay Bushill-Matthews spoke in quite a different tone. He affirmed that, as former head of a major enterprise, he was in favour of worker information but opposed to any "straight jacket" that could prevent companies from "rapidly managing change" and thus taking decisions that would possibly save jobs. For this reason, the MEP, who is in favour of the Council's common position as such, declared: the British government has called on British MPs to approve this common position. The Conservatives will do so, and I call on British Labour to "vote with us", he said. Benedetto Della Vedova, elected on the Lista Bonino, said he too was able to approve the common position without amendment, although he was opposed to the models of co-management that do not exist in all Member States, and to any worker involvement in the decisions of enterprises that, he says, would be equivalent to a "right of veto" on such decisions.
Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou recognised the serious effort of compromise made by the rapporteur while considering that "it would not be wise" to insist on amendments that would destroy a balance struck with difficulty.
During its vote, the plenary slightly modified the Council's common position in order to strengthen it, but rejected amendments on the trickiest issues that provided for: - Member States to take reinforced sanctions in case of serious violation by the employer of the worker information and consultation obligations when decisions are taken leading to a break in a contract or working relationship. They must also envisage specific procedures allowing worker representatives to have decisions suspended when these lead to a break in contract or work relations, if such decisions are taken in serious violation of the information and consultation obligations; - the transition period would be two years (as foreseen in the Commission's proposal) instead of three (Council version).