Mr President, two initial comments: the first is to say that Commissioner Fischler has not disappointed me because I no longer have any illusions about his actions. The second concerns my colleague, Regina Bastos, whose words were in total contrast to what the Portuguese Government is doing, presided over by the senior leader of her party, the PSD. I congratulate her on this, however, although I feel bound to note the contradiction. Ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, the increase in relocations by multinationals involving the partial or total closure of their factories in the countries of the EU in which they have been based, especially Portugal, is aggravating unemployment, stifling the development of regions lacking alternative forms of employment and increasing poverty and social exclusion. In the majority of cases, these companies relocate in the sole aim of maximising their profits, since their productivity, efficiency or economic viability are not at stake. Furthermore, they sometimes undertake such action after receiving substantial Community, national and local aid, failing even to meet the commitments they have given and ignoring the extremely serious social and economic damage they cause, which is what happened in the case of C [amp] J Clark in Arouca and Castelo de Paiva and in many other cases in Portugal. This is an unacceptable situation that is underpinned by the existence of a roving form of investment for which ethics and social responsibility do not exist, and whose sole aim is to obtain the maximum profit possible, always in the pursuit of more incentives and more financial and fiscal aid and of cheap labour with few rights, ready to change location when the prospect of greater profits or greater community aid for them to set up appears elsewhere. This situation is particularly serious in countries that are weaker in economic and social terms. The case of Portugal cannot be compared with that of other countries, although this entire issue warrants attention throughout the EU. In Portugal we have seen various examples of this phenomenon, of which I shall only refer to a few, involving closures of companies and parts of companies, new threats, and job cuts in multinational companies. I would highlight several examples of this: Eres, Bawo, Schuh-Union, Scottwool, Rhode, Ecco'let, Yasaki Saltano, Philips, Alcoa, Dhelphy, Alcatel. To sum up, this is a very long list, which needs to be closely examined. There are several thousand workers who are under threat, mainly women – and this is worth noting – in the textile, clothing, shoemaking and electric and electronic goods sectors. Measures must therefore be adopted to regulate this type of investment and to protect employment and local and regional development. Hence our proposals for the urgent creation of a regulatory legal framework – which must not be confined to what Commissioner Fischler stated a few moments ago – that makes Community investment aid conditional on companies’ meeting contractual obligations that ensure the protection of the interests of communities and regions affected and in this way ensure respect for sustained economic and social development accompanied by the full guarantee of information and intervention for workers’ organisations throughout the process, including the right of veto. It is particularly important that all aid is made conditional on long-term agreements in the fields of employment and local development, that no aid is granted under Community programmes to companies that do not respect these commitments or that misuse aid. Nor must aid be granted to companies that, having received aid in one Member State, transfer their operations to another without having fully met their commitments. Otherwise the aid they have received in the first country must be repaid. Consequently, the Commission must make a rigorous assessment of all recent and current cases. Companies that have received Community financial aid must also all be audited, and these actions must be accompanied by an exhaustive study of the closure of companies that have received Community financial aid and into the relocations now underway, at a time, like this, when enlargement is close and when this situation is even more worrying.

Political group: GUE-NGL