Strasbourg, 10/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on Tuesday, members of the European Parliament's Socialist group launched a campaign for a "broad European plan" to tackle the problem of the delocalisation of "hundreds of thousands of jobs, to outside the Member States of the European Union". In a statement, MEPs Claude Moraes, Stephen Hughes, Mel Read, Marie-Hélène Gillig and Alejandro Cercas called upon the European Commission for a report on the consequences of delocalisation on employment in Europe.
"British jobs are going to India, French jobs to South Africa, Spanish jobs to Central and South America, German jobs to Central Europe, and Scandinavian jobs to the Baltic States and India", said Claude Moraes (Labour, UK), who wrote the statement, in a press release. He added: "whereas some of these jobs will benefit developing countries, we believe that the Union, and the Member States individually, should do more through regional policy to respond to dramatic job losses". He pointed out that this has nothing to do with protectionism, but with reminding Member States of the need to do more for employment and to create better quality jobs, as the Lisbon Strategy requires.
On the occasion of this appeal, a Uni Europe delegation (representing 2 million service sector employees), and British Union Amicus were present in Strasbourg.