Brussels, 21/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - "We have just received a formal request on the part of the French authorities " on the subject of Hewlett-Packard's intentions to shed a great many jobs in Europe, particularly France, President Barroso told the press on Wednesday. When asked about plans by the American IT group to make some 6000 members of staff redundant between now and 2008, Mr Barroso pointed out that there are European rules on mass redundancies, and that "social dialogue is inevitable". The Commission cannot "stop the company from making staff redundant", but we will have a look at the situation with the French authorities and we will see if there are any possibilities to intervene using the structural funds or the social fund, in order to help the workers to find new employment if Hewlett-Packard's decision is confirmed, said Mr Barroso. The president pointed out that in the Rover redundancy case, the Commission had been in a position to provide aid of 193 million EUR, which " was very well received". We propose to create an adjustment fund for growth with an envelope of one billion EUR a year from 2070 to 2013, but the Member States did not agree to this, said Mr Barroso, launching a particularly energetic appeal to the six Member States of rigour.
In passing, Mr Barroso announced that Commissioner Verheugen was to propose a "new European industrial policy" in early October. "European industry must have a future", he pleaded.