Brussels, 28/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Education and Culture Commissioner, Viviane Reding, highlighted the role played by the European Coal and Steel Community's social and industrial policies at the official commemorations of the expiry of the ECSC Treaty (23 July) held in Luxembourg on 24-27 June. The results obtained thanks to the ECSC Treaty were of a considerable size and scope, particularly for the updating of the coal and steel industries, she said.
Acknowledging the social cost of updating these industries, the Commissioner felt that the experience and know-how acquired with the Treaty help deal with the new challenges arising in the wake of industrial restructuring and job losses and that the Treaty's tools were the precursors of the EU's new strategic instruments (such as regional policy). Viviane Reding also hailed the two joint committees set up to harmonise working conditions in the coal and steel industries, industries that had been profoundly restructured, particularly by information technology. Social loans made in the framework of the ECSC Treaty had enabled many workers to find housing but a social programme that focused solely on revenue aid today would fly in the race of a modern and effective employment policy, she noted, stressing the need for other tools, like training and job diversification (particularly into the service sector). Feeling that co-operation and dialogue were still vital in all branches of industry at the international level, and supporting the views of Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy in his denunciation of the illegal protection measures taken by the US administration last March, Viviane Reding concluded that Europe has to continue to act to ensure that the traditions implemented in the framework of the ECSC Treaty are respected, thereby ensuring that the EU's policies support the double objective of economic competitiveness and social cohesion, on which hang the prosperity of the European Union in the future.