WRITTEN QUESTION E-3673/02

by Antonio Di Pietro (ELDR) to the Commission

(18 December 2002)

Subject: Job crisis for the industries in the l'Aquila electronics park

The industries in the l'Aquila electronics park have been in a critical situation for some months now and the more than one thousand people working for the firms Flextronics and Lares-Tecno risk losing their jobs. Meetings between trade unions, national government and local authorities have not managed to offer a practical response to the workers' concerns. If the jobs are lost there is a real danger that the Abruzzo region would once again become an Objective 1 region, which would nullify the efforts made in the recent past to offer the inhabitants new development opportunities.

The firms concerned operate in the sectors of electronics and telephony, considered as strategic sectors, to which the European Union has recently turned its attention with a view to closing the technological gap which still separates Europe from the United States and Japan.

For all these reasons is the Commission willing and able to adopt emergency measures to intervene in this employment emergency? In particular, can these firms be included in the Community programmes Galileo and Cosmos?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(13 February 2003)

The Commission manages the Structural Funds, including the European Social Fund, together with the regions on the basis of subsidiarity. It is not involved with the management of either the regional operational plans or the projects funded.

However, the Commission has contacted the Abruzzo region and can therefore inform the Honourable Member that the firm Lares-Tecno has received EUR 95 000 of funding to retrain its employees. Flextronics, however, has not submitted a funding application.

Any European company may participate in the Galileo programme, which currently offers two options. The infrastructure development phase, which has been estimated to cost EUR 1,1 billion, will include work related to the space segment (design, construction and launch of satellites) and to the ground control segment (mission centres, measuring stations, etc.). As public procurement rules must be observed, a call for tenders will be issued in the course of 2003. The companies in the Aquila electronics park may apply for this.

Moreover, preparation of the industries downstream from navigation is an extremely promising market, with a figure of EUR 1 billion in Europe in 2000, and a turnover of EUR 6 billion is forecast for 2005. Preparatory activities (research to perfect Europe's experience in this area) will be funded by the sixth framework programme for research and development. The first call for proposals (EUR 20 million in total) will be issued at the beginning of 2003. Here, too, companies involved in applications and systems related to satellite navigation services are free to submit project proposals.

In conclusion, the Galileo programme offers a range of ways in which new contracts may be obtained, but only criteria related to performance, innovation, price and excellence will be taken into account in the selection of the proposals received.