WRITTEN QUESTION P-0376/04 by Luciana Sbarbati (ELDR) to the Commission. Crisis in the steel sector in Terni.
Date: 2004-02-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Umbria, cessation of trading, employment policy, industrial restructuring, iron and steel industry, job cuts, social dialogue, worker consultation, worker information

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3.4.2004

As a consequence, the Commission closed this infringement procedure against Ireland on 9 July 2003.

(1) Directive 1999/44/EC of the Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of

consumer goods and associated guarantees, OJ L 171, 7.7.1999.

(2004/C 84 E/0248)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0370/04

by Proinsias De Rossa (PSE) to the Commission

(12 February 2004)

Subject: Extension of the Working Time Directive to excluded sectors

Directive 2000/34/EC (1) on the extension of the 1993 Working Time Directive (Council Directive 93/104/
EC (2)) was scheduled to be transposed by all Member States by 1 August 2003 (apart from the provisions
relating to trainee doctors for which the transposition date is 1 August 2004).

How many workers in Ireland does the Commission estimate would be covered by this Directive if it were
to be implemented in full by the Irish Government?

(1) OJ L 195, 1.8.2000, p. 41.
(2) OJ L 307, 13.12.1993, p. 18.

Answer given by Mrs Wallström on behalf of the Commission

(4 March 2004)

In the ‘White Paper on sectors and activities excluded from the working time directive’ (1), the Commission
estimated that all sectors and activities excluded from the scope of Directive 93/104/EC, including self-
employment, represented 5,6 million jobs (around 4 % of total jobs in the EU), of which 3,5 million (about
2,5 % of total jobs) were in the road transport sector. This gives an indication of the numbers involved at
EU level. The Commission does not have the breakdown of these figures by Member State.

(1) COM(97) 334 final, paragraph 18.

(2004/C 84 E/0249)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0376/04

by Luciana Sbarbati (ELDR) to the Commission

(6 February 2004)

Subject: Crisis in the steel sector in Terni

Given that:

(cid:1) the strategic objectives set by the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000 expressed the hope that
by 2010 the Union would become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in
the world, capable of sustainable economic growth, with more and better jobs and greater social
cohesion;

(cid:1) the Commission Green Paper (2001) on Corporate Social Responsibility confirmed Europe’s interest in

this field;

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Official Journal of the European Union

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(cid:1) in its Communication of 2002 the Commission adopted a strategy aimed at creating a partnership for
the development of a European framework to promote corporate social responsibility in order to
safeguard jobs by strengthening competitiveness, social cohesion and environmental protection;

(cid:1) the Commission has also stressed that CSR is an instrument that may assist the achievement of the
objectives of the European Union’s policies, promote development and improve global governance by
incorporating existing policy instruments such as legislation and social dialogue;

(cid:1) the company Thyssen Krupp, which owns AST in Terni, had undertaken to turn Terni

into the

European centre of excellence for grain-oriented electrical steel;

(cid:1) the Terni plant is among the cheapest in Europe as regards product unit cost;

(cid:1) there has been heavy public investment in the site, including Community Objective 2 and ESF funding
from which AST has

infrastructure and vocational

the local system,

training),

(development of
benefited directly or indirectly.

Can the Commission say, in view of the above, whether and how it intends to intervene to prevent the
closure of AST’s electrical steel department in Terni, Italy, which would entail the loss of 900 jobs in the
area, as well as having adverse repercussions on the region, and whether it has a precise strategy for
tackling the negative impact of industrial restructuring measures?

(2004/C 84 E/0250)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-0388/04

by Roberta Angelilli (UEN) to the Commission

Subject: Terni steelworks: closure of the Thyssen-Krupp plant

(6 February 2004)

Thyssen-Krupp Electrical Steel, a German multinational producing electrical steel, has announced its
decision to discontinue production at the AST plant in Terni.

The site, which currently also produces stainless steel, since it can split the cost of the melting apparatus
with the electrical sector, was separated from the company about three years ago, after the privatisation of
the State-owned company ILVA, which caused enormous job losses, reducing the workforce from 7 000 to
3 000.

This closure would now cause 900 workers to be laid off, including the company’s own employees and
others working in related industries, lost turnover of EUR 140 million and the loss of 90 000 tonnes of
‘grain-oriented’ electrical steel (cid:1) a very high quality product (cid:1) per year, the end of the largest industrial
group in Terni and the whole region and the discontinuation of an industry which, by virtue of the
workers’ high level of professional skills, has a significant national strategic value.

The loss of some portions of the market, in some cases owing to obvious errors in commercial and
led Thyssen-Krupp to take the decision (cid:1) with the backing of the findings of a
production activities,
market survey which seem to be misleading (cid:1) to transfer this branch of the business to France or
Germany and to reject any possibility of selling the business, since this would encourage and provide
production capacity for competition in Italy, a country which buys 60 % of all European electrical steel
production and would in the future be obliged to obtain it from abroad.

In view of the serious consequences on both the job front and for the regional and national economy, the
fact that Thyssen-Krupp’s closedown of this activity in Italy may seriously upset the established equilibrium
of competition on the European market, and in view of the high level of excellence of this plant’s steel
production at European level,

can the Commission say:

1. how the EU might intervene to safeguard the future of the workers in Terni and the region’s economy;