Brussels, 27/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - Accompanying change by giving workers affected by restructuring the opportunity to swiftly find new jobs, planning in order to suitably respond, together with the guarantee of follow-up by targeted sector forums (on innovation, for example) are some of the main conclusions of the first meeting of the Restructuring Forum. The forum also mentioned the necessity of bringing together social partners and the regional and government authorities, as well as highlighting the holistic approach involving EU and Member State actors but also the concept of subsidiarity. The forum took place on 23 June in Brussels and was summed up by Commissioner Vladimir Spidla who pointed out “We are in a Europe of 25 members, not 15!...A job in any of the ten new Member States has the same value as a job in one of the older Member States”. The president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, the president of the Employment Council, François Biltgen and representatives from the consultative European assemblies, as well as major European social partners attended this forum, which follows the launch of the 2nd consultation phase of European partners on company restructuring and European works councils (EUROPE 8918). The Commission wants the forum to meet up twice a year. The next themes of discussion will be: the regional level role in anticipation and accompaniment of restructuring; industrial policy; the external dimension and the link between innovation and job creation.
Barroso: Europe needs a new industrial policy - for a balanced social model of flexibility and security
President José Manuel Barroso exclaimed that, “Europe cannot afford to stand still” and had to avoid falling into depression, some thing it could ill afford. He also stated that in the USA they always said everything was fine but in Europe we had a tendency to be melancholy but that this should avoid exaggeration. He said that they had to take advantage of the three main changes of the century: globalisation, technology and demographics. Mr Barroso declared that Europe had to “show that it can offer jobs and opportunities to all…changes are happening faster than ever…Everything must be done to ensure that restructuring does not lead to exclusion”. He mentioned the example of Rover and the freshly proposed reform proposed by the College, CMO on sugar. Varroso said that they were thinking of those affected by restructuring and the problems of textiles in Portugal. He explained that the debate had to take place on a European level in the context of a new industrial policy. He explained that Europe' needed a Common Agricultural Policy and an industrial policy adapted to modern times and that they needed to do everything to conserve a modern and competitive industry. He highlighted the key role of social partners and the importance of European enterprise committees. The president of the Commission averred that “globalisation means that some companies are now creating 'global works council'. The Tripartite Summit to be held before the next Spring European Council in 2006 will provide an opportunity to take stock of our progress in the area of social dialogue on restructuring”. He concluded that “Managing restructuring is the great challenge of our age. It must be based on a social model which balances flexibility with security. That is what today's world needs”.
Biltgen: Europe's success will depend on the capacity for adapting companies and workers
The president of the EU employment Council, François Biltgen noted that this forum would be a priority in the decision taken by the informal Council on 8 April in Luxembourg (EUROPE 8925). He declared that adaptation and rapid responses in a socio-economic context that was always changing would guarantee competitiveness of Europe's enterprises. He added that the ability to maintain, indeed, improve the quality of the labour force would depend on the implementation of a coherent enterprise policy of training and skills development.
Roger Briesch, Vice President of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), said that ideas were not sufficient, no matter how brilliant they were if sufficient and suitable funding did not exist for accompanying restructuring. Paulina Haijanen highlighted the priorities of the Committee of the Regions: employment and competitiveness. Jan Andersson, president of the EP social committee affirmed that they should open up their markets to the rest of the world, which required the will to accept change.
During the debate, Thérèse de Liedekerke, speaking for European employers, expressed a few reservations. UNICE thought that local levels were better suited for managing the social consequences of restructuring and not the European level and that they should determine what would the added vale be for clearly defining its missions.
Liliane Volozinskis (UAPME (the Voice of SMEs in Europe) declared that “…restructuring plans…fails to pay attention to the large number of small firms…that are affected by industrial change. More needs to be done to ensure this vital section of the economy is not ignored”. Representatives from the metal workers union (FEM), is a sector constantly affected by restructuring, Luis Miguel Fernandez (restructuring consultant at Arecelor) highlighted the need for managing the “positive consequences of restructuring” and preventative action. Dominique Lund from the European Committee for Sugar Producers noted that the Commission's communication on reform of the sugar sector involved the closing down of 4 out of 10 factories in the EU25 and would directly affect 25,000 out of 60,000 workers. Ms Lund said that access to structural funds and the social fund was very important. Bernadette Tesch-Segol, from the Uni Europa (public services) indicated that the services sector (finance, telecom, post, media, information technology, graphics) had been subject to high does of restructuring, impacting on jobs and drawing attention to the fact that there was restructuring of companies that were financially healthy but whose shareholders wanted to make money. She declared that the level of enterprise and the local level were not sufficient and that they also needed a framework a leadership and a line from the European sector level. Jürgen Nusser from the Bundesverband Deutscher Stahlhandel (member of the European Economic and Social Committee stated that there was a lack of “restructuring policy dimension” when it came to the three kinds of restructuring (intersector, instrasector and company level). Dirk Ameel from the Eurocadres union said that a European framework was needed for reinforcing the involvement from the outset of all social partners. Loes Van Hoogstraten from the Dutch employers organisation the VNO-NCW, however, said that they needed to highlight national social partners.