BUSINESS RESTRUCTURING : ASSISTING 'SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE' RESTRUCTURING.

Following relocation on 15 March (see Europolitics 3046), MEPs sought on 16 March to extend the debate to restructuring in general. They voted by a large majority (463 to 142 with 58 abstentions) to adopt the report by French Socialist Jean-Louis Cottigny. The tone is not surprisingly similar.

EXERGUE Parliament argues that business restructuring should only occur "where it is justified, i.e. to save jobs and improve the competitiveness and economic development of businesses"

"Relocation is only a factor in 8% of restructuring", according to the rapporteur. Restructuring is "a secular and inevitable phenomenon. Society changes and it is normal that economic developments should follow. Restructuring is a guarantee of the economic competitiveness of companies and therefore of jobs". On the other hand, one cannot "deny that some restructuring is based on false pretexts and the quest for financial gain". It would therefore seem appropriate to "assist 'socially responsible businesses' and penalise 'gangster enterprises". Parliament argues that business restructuring should only occur "where it is justified, i.e. to save jobs and improve the competitiveness and economic development of businesses". It should not be an option simply "to increase profitability by making staff redundant or on purely financial or speculative grounds". Businesses guilty of "subsidy tourism" should be sanctioned and public aid repaid where companies relocate within seven years.

GREATER FORESIGHT

There is a human cost to such operations. "Restructuring affects not only the enterprise concerned and its subcontractors, but also and indeed above all the economic fabric (eg business, small traders) of the area", according to rapporteur J.L. Cottigny. Parliament argues that the European Union should therefore "ensure the necessary financial resources to anticipate and accompany restructuring and its social consequences", withouta neglecting the competitiveness of the economy. MEPs on the Regional Development Committee recommend action through four existing 'EU levers': competition policy (notably state aid), internal market policy, company policy and...

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