Strasbourg, 26/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - In a joint resolution tabled by the EPP-ED, PES, ALDE and UEN groups at the European Parliament, adopted by 413 to 44 with 29 abstentions in Strasbourg on Wednesday 25 March 2009, the Parliament called for coherent and concerted action to support the European car industry.
While the economic and financial crisis is putting the car industry around the world under intense pressure, characterised by a slump in demand, over-production, problems accessing loans and structural problems that predated the current crisis, the crisis in the car industry also has a European dimension and it is for this reason that the European Parliament is recommending “coherent and concerted” action from member states to support the industry, and the introduction of a genuine EU framework of action in the form of tangible measures to enable the EU and its member states to take the “necessary decisive measures”. Some short-term national measures may lead to an uneven playing field within the single market and damage long-term competitiveness, and the EP urges member states to ensure that any future measures are coherent, effective and coordinated. In this connection, it hails the adoption by the European Commission of a temporary state aid framework under the European Economic Recovery Plan (see EUROPE 9851) and work to provide an effective political response to the problems facing General Motors Europe and its supply chain by coordinating measures taken by the member states in question (see EUROPE 9862).
The EP urged the Council, however, to speed up the process of simplifying and stepping up financial aid for the car industry through the EIB and the granting of low-interest state-backed loans. In this connection, the Commission and Council were invited to call for a simplification of the loan application paperwork. The European Parliament also wants the EIB to ensure SMEs in the car industry are able to access credit. In order to ensure that the EIB's lending capacity is able to keep up with the medium-term financial needs of the car industry, member states are requested to increase the bank's capital. Any financial or fiscal measures should speed up the introduction of the new technology in the industry (to reduce cars' carbon footprint and increase their energy efficiency, for example) required to comply with the recently adopted legislation.
Policies at national and EU level should support the restructuring of the EU car industry and the industry itself should change as necessary while respecting its responsibility to society in general, in close collaboration with the employers and trade unions. The trade unions should be fully involved in European social dialogue on the future of the industry. In addition to encouraging European social dialogue, the Commission is requested to ensure optimal use of the EU funding available to support employment (the Cohesion Fund, the Structural Fund, the Social Fund and the European Globalisation Fund), improving access to funding to help introduce training and re-training at an early stage for workers whose hours have been reduced or who have been suspended due to the crisis.
Highlighting the need for continued investment in R&D programmes for the car industry to ensure the best solutions for quality, safety and environmental performance, the EP urges the Commission to improve access to EU aid and funding for research and innovation, like the 7th Framework Programme. The Commission is also invited to draw up guidelines and recommendations on the adoption of measures to encourage people to buy newer cars, like subsidies for scrapping old cars and other measures to stimulate demand, while monitoring the national measures already in place to ensure they do not lead to an unfair playing field.
On the global front, the EP confirms the need for more dialogue with other countries and the EU's trading partners on the future of the car industry. The Commission is asked to monitor developments in other parts of the world, like the United States and Asia, to ensure there is fair competition. The EP also asks the Commission to ensure a “fair and balanced” agreement is reached between the EU and South Korea on the car industry before any EU-South Korea free trade agreement is reached.
Finally, the EP confirms its support for the strategic long-term CARS 21 process, but wants the Commission to continue to re-examine the programme with a view to ensuring the future competitiveness of the European car industry and ensure sustainable employment in the industry. Under the Better Regulation process, the EP urges the Commission to make a full assessment of the impact of new EU legislation on vehicles in order to guarantee legal security and predictability for the car industry.
Priding himself on raising the issue in plenary in November 2008, when he suggested a New Car Deal to safeguard jobs through training, speeding up the technological changes in the industry, the move towards cleaner and more intelligent vehicles and using an EU eco-subsidy to encourage people to buy newer cars, French PES MEP Pierre Pribetich issued a press release regretting the EP's slow reaction, describing it as “too little, too late”. He said the resolution had arrived late in a complex political context with a Commission that is running out of steam and a Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU that is under pressure at home. The man behind the resolution, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis (ALDE, Germany) says that the public authorities must restrict themselves to guaranteeing loans for the private sector that meet the EU's new environmental targets rather than buying into the car industry. He said the car industry was strategically important but was not of systemic importance. Car manufacturers have to realise that the state cannot always come to their rescue, he said, calling for a close evaluation of any measures. Italian Liberal MEP Gianluca Susta said the EU had to negotiate trade terms with countries like Japan, South Korea, India and China at the World Trade Organisation level.
The Greens, who did not back the joint resolution, criticised it for lack of ambition, giving the go-ahead to unconditional public aid for the car industry but shrugging off the question of reconversion. In a press release, Hélène Flautre (France) and Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Germany) comment that workers are paying the price for bad choices made by the industry and it is not by injecting unconditional public aid that the industry's future and the future of the workers will be protected. Most of the EP even refused to prioritise the payment of wages and refused to ban the use of public funds to restore the coffers of shareholders and executives, they explain, adding that it is by converting factories to produce greener, less polluting, more efficient vehicles and by investing massively in public transport that the EU will be able to ensure it has a competitive, up-to-the-minute car industry to guarantee jobs. (E.H./transl.fl)