Strasbourg, 19/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - During the debate on the future prospects of the European aeronautical construction company in the context of the restructuring plan for Airbus, known as “Power 8”, which was held in Strasbourg on 14 March by request of the president of the GUE/NGL group, Francis Wurtz, the members of the European Parliament spoke out against poor management with grave social consequences and pleaded in favour of an alternative to the restructuring plan for Airbus, possibly via public funding (see EUROPE 9361, 9377 and 9382).
Noting the problems of Airbus (the company which was the “number one on the global market in 2006” and which is struggling under delivery delays with the A380 and the weakness of the dollar) the German secretary of state with responsibility for aerospatial affairs, Peter Hintz, said that the fact that the aircraft manufacturer was in the process of restructuring and on the lookout for partners was down to the company, not politicians. The vice-president of the European Commission, Günter Verheugen, for his part, was somewhat critical of the politicians, “who cannot and must not get involved in the economic decisions of businesses” (see also EUROPE 9387). He laid emphasis on the “moral duty to help redundant workers”, particularly in terms of reconversion aid. Lastly, the vice-president called upon the “European players in the sector to take care that they do not suffer the same damage themselves in terms of the image which the European automobile industry has had to suffer in recent weeks, due to their failure to react to the requirements of our age in terms of the environment”.
Christine Veyrac (EPP-ED, France) asked the European Commission to examine the various possibilities for recourse to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund and the European Social Fund to help the workers hit by the restructuring. She also called for “a new shareholder pact, which will grant a greater place to the industrial shareholder. This means”, the MEP explained, “that the shareholders must state their intentions: do they wish to continue with their participation or do the others need to start looking for new financial and industrial partners?” The idea of a stake for the French regions to save Airbus seems, in Ms Veyrac's view, to point to a “total lack of reality, as this stake could not exceed 0.6% of the capital”. Matthias Groote (PES, Germany) called upon Peter Hintz to “do all in his power to keep the sites and to ensure that Power 8 is not applied as it stands”, as he believes that it should not be up to the employees to pay the price for the mistakes made by the management. Gérard Onesta (Greens/EFA, France) said that in order to get out of the crisis, we must “put the aeroplane in its correct place, below the law”, but also “carry out a public recapitalisation”. Mr Onesta also pleaded in favour of a “change of structure for the functioning of the intergovernmental mode” and “a rationalisation of the industrial mode”. “In order for the aeronautics industry to have a future, we must create, as a matter of urgency, a European Fund for research, employment and training”, said Jacky Henin (GUE/NGL, France), adding that “in 10 years' time, 30% of the staff of EADS (European Aeronautics Defence and Space Company, which is the mother company of Airbus: Ed) will retire and, in order to preserve their knowledge, a massive recruitment and training programme will be essential”, he concluded. His German colleague Gabi Zimmer (GUE/NGL) then asked “how much longer will the Commission and the Council allow company directors to compensate their own failures by making employees redundant?”. “Airbus is a European project which requires European solutions”, said the leader of the European Socialists at the EP, the German MEP Martin Schulz. “We should be proud to be European. However, Airbus represents one of the worst failures of the Lisbon strategy, which is supposed to make the European economy a pole of excellence”. In the view of the French Socialist Kader Arif, “like with the case with Volkswagen in Forest (Belgium), the Airbus affair shows the shortcomings of social dialogue in Europe”. Speaking more generally, “Airbus raises the problem of an absence of industrial policy on Europe”, Mr Arif added, announcing that the Socialist MEPs are to invite representatives of the EADS unions and of the European Trade Unions Confederation (ETUC) to Brussels on 28-29 March, to debate the issue on the sidelines of the plenary session of the EP.
Furthermore, European Commission spokesperson Johannes Laitenberger told a press conference of 14 March that “Airbus is not entitled to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. This Fund is a last-resort instrument to be used by request of a member state, when all other means to assist the workers have been exhausted”. (gb)