Mr President, this dispute we are witnessing here about which direction to take really is an interesting one. The European company landscape is changing at a pace never before seen, but the pattern which, in our view, these changes follow is always the same. Through restructuring and mergers, new giant companies come into being in their respective branches of industry, and their record on jobs – if it is the big companies you look at – is practically never good. In the German banking industry alone, more than 100,000 jobs are being lost at present. Millions of employees in Europe rightly fear for their jobs and, at the same time, the company reorganisations and restructurings are accompanied by rising share prices, at least in the short term. The fact is very often ignored that only a very few people benefit from this new distribution of profits, for it is a very modest minority who hold any shares at all. And, in contrast to what you said, Commissioner, Michelin is not in fact, heaven knows, an isolated case. Other speakers have in fact already made this very clear. Those who carry out the restructuring always argue that they had no other choice. You just have to adapt now; no-one can avoid the growing concentrations of businesses. The result, however, is a very dangerous self-fulfilling prophecy and, in more and more branches of industry, we are heading for dangerous market concentrations. I am certain that, in the future, we shall still be very much occupied with this question precisely here in the European Parliament. We therefore need initiatives for a workable European law on cartels. I should also like briefly to emphasise two further aspects. In the course of powerful and radical changes, small and medium-sized companies in particular come under a very great deal of pressure. While large companies are setting their sights on yields of 15% on invested capital, more and more suppliers are seeing their profit margins shrink. In the end, it is the small and medium-sized companies which, in addition to the employees, are having to bear the largest share of the tax burden. Those who come out on top from the mergers and restructurings also understand how legally to avoid paying tax. In this way, Europe is heading for a genuinely dangerous and unbalanced state of affairs. Our social peace is placed in the greatest jeopardy if scarcely more than a fifth of society benefits from developments and the remainder lag behind. Any commitment which runs counter to this development ought now therefore to be persistently supported. We are not concerned here with a law of nature. We must have the courage to demand also of those who profit from the reorganisations that they should make a relevant contribution to social tasks. To that extent, it is important that national tax policies should be coordinated in such a way that transfers of capital and of companies on the basis of tax advantages alone should be prevented. However, that is not enough. Never since the Second World War has there been such an imbalance in economic and political power. In this connection, the opportunity for employees, as well as small and medium-sized companies, to organise themselves on a cross-border basis .... (The President cut the speaker off) That is why it is crucially important to strengthen the European Works Councils. I urge the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament to concentrate on these central questions and to put the finishing touches, above all, to the European Works Councils and not only to the issue of offering consultation and information.

Political group: PSE