Brussels, 05/04/2005 (Agence Europe) - Vladimir Spidla presented the press on 5 April in Brussels with the Commission's communication last week on company restructuring. He said that the world was now a globalised world and restructuring was an eternal process. He added that this was a phenomenon that mankind had experienced since its very beginning. The communication will be on the agenda of the Social Troika and Informal Employment and Social Policies Council on 7 and 8 April in Luxembourg (EUROPE 8918). The European Commission intends to use this communication for allocating up to EUR 11.3 billion to people and regions affected by economic change.
To help deal with the changes, the Commission has formulated a proposal for strengthening social dialogue and improving existing policies, increasing financial aid and re-targeting existing aid. The Commissioner said that everyday in every Member State of the EU25 there were on average 500 to 1500 jobs created or got rid of. He added that over the last 25 years, the EU had created 30 million new jobs and that these changed from sector to sector. The Commissioner explained that 44 million jobs had been created in services while 7.5 million had been lost in farming and 7 million from industry. Spidla said that this went with changes in the skills of workers and that employment had increased by 1.2% for workers with very few skills and by 14.2% for those that had average qualifications and 25.1% for highly skilled workers. The Commissioner concluded that the main goal of the text was to accompany the restructuring process through coordinated measures to prevent negative repercussions at a social level and to avoid human capital from collapsing.
Replying to questions from the press Vladimir Spidla said that:
1) the key for distributing the EUR 11.3 billion was that the 11.3 billion for financial perspectives for 2007-13 constituted an amount which in general terms had to accompany the fallout from restructuring. Rules would be elaborated and included in financial perspectives. Spidla highlighted the fact that this money would be for restructuring and that they simply had to cushion the negative effects of restructuring, “this amount was decided on in the context of financial perspectives. This comes from the reserves for suing where restructuring takes place and where there are problems”. Spidla noted that programmes would be set up through cooperation between the local authorities, the European Social Fund (ESF) and the European institutions. They would then be financed as part of the financial perspectives for 2007-13. 2) Adaptation of the labour market to economic realities: the Commissioner announced that the next elaboration of a Green Paper on labour legislation would be used for dealing with the situation in the labour market and that the principle was to take action for protecting work in general and on the possibility of everyone having a quality job.
3) Rejection by the Ecofin Council of a similar fund of 7 million euro. What is the point of this new proposal on increasing funds? Spidla replied that the most recent proposals had been taken into account in the financial perspectives and the form of it had to be differentiated from a special independent fund. He explained that they would be able to convince Member States it there were social and regions arguments in favour. He proposed that the means for accompanying the consequences of restructuring were defined and that this was not a global instrument for economic growth, “it is an instrument that accompanies economic change which has also led to the creation of 30 million new jobs.
By way of conclusion, Commissioner Spidla stressed that these funds are not intended to fight against restructuring but to facilitate access to employment for those affected by the process and to stabilise the economic situation in the regions affected. The aim is to allow those who leave their former jobs to find new employment within ten years, to allow regions producing coal or steel and which were affected by restructuring to upgrade, and to ensure that European labour resources are well used.