Brussels, 24/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - After Danuta Hübner (Cohesion Policy), Vladimir Spidla (Employment and Social Affairs) spoke on 23 November with Belgian policy-makers on ways to assist the workers of the Volkswagen plant in Brussels/Forest that have been affected by the loss of 4,000 jobs (see EUROPE 9311 and 9312). Mr Spidla said he would be writing to the president of Volkswagen “urging him to ensure an effective social dialogue throughout this restructuring operation”.
Mr Spidla also recalled that he European Social Fund “is available to assist those affected by the partial closure of the Volkswagen plant in Forest. The Commission is making every effort to help the Belgian authorities adjust their current Structural Funds allocations so that they can provide the Volkswagen workers with support for retraining: support to suppliers to adapt to new markets and assistance to those who want to create new business”. During the next ten years, some €1 billion will be made available for Belgium under European Structural Funds, and “we shall be looking at how to use the funds most effectively”, Mr Spidla promised. The Volkswagen/Forest crisis was also tackled on Friday by the European Commission's restructuring task force, and a meeting between Belgian officials and Commission services is scheduled for 30 November to discuss the specific activities that may be financed by the European Structural Funds for helping workers laid off by Volkswagen.
At the European Parliament, the Socialist Group chaired by Martin Schulz called for the creation of a “European crisis fund to deal with closures and redundancies in major manufacturing sectors”. He said the fund would be “modelled on support for the coal and steel industries in the early days of the European Union”. The Socialist Group, like the president of GUE/NGL, Francis Wurtz, also requests that the question be included on the agenda of next week's plenary in Brussels. The Belgian representatives of the group are particularly concerned. Mia de Vits called for new rules to govern restructuring on a parallel with existing rules on mergers. Alain Hutchinson and Véronique de Keyser called on the European Commission for “firm action” and stressed that “Europe has a responsibility to intervene over the enormous social cost” entailed in this affair. (mg)