WRITTEN QUESTION E-0493/04 by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission. Closure of the Panasqueira mines in Portugal.
Date: 2004-02-23
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Portugal, cessation of trading, collective dismissal, mining industry, worker consultation, worker information

8.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 88 E/505

(2004/C 88 E/0516)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0493/04

by Ilda Figueiredo (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(23 February 2004)

Subject: Closure of the Panasqueira mines in Portugal

The miners at the Panasqueira mines in Portugal are once again threatened with redundancy. The company
which currently operates the mine (Primary Metal Incorporated, a multinational whose capital is mainly of
Canadian origin) is threatening to close it, citing as its reasons for so doing the financial difficulties which
it is experiencing, the devaluation of the dollar, the fall in ore prices, competition from China and the
possible sale by the USA of 1 500 tonnes of tungsten from its strategic defence stocks.

Hence approximately 220 miners and their families living in a mountainous area of inland Portugal where
there are no alternative sources of employment are threatened with redundancy and poverty on account of
EU monetary and competition policies, multinational companies’ lack of responsibility for their workers
and the liberalisation of the world market (WTO).

Would the Commission therefore say which action it is intending to take in conjunction with the
Portuguese Government with a view to protecting the rights of the workers in question and helping to
ensure that the Panasqueira mines continue to operate normally?

Answer given by Mr Dimas on behalf of the Commission

(7 April 2004)

The Commission wishes to remind the Honourable Member that, under Community law,
it has no
authority to prevent or defer the closure of a company. This is a decision that falls to the owners of the
company following the appropriate procedures.

In this sense, the Commission points out that several Community directives lay down procedures of
information and of consultation of workers’ representatives which can prove to be applicable in the event
of closures of companies, in particular Council Directive 98/59/EC of 20 July 1998 concerning collective
redundancies (1), and Council Directive 94/45/EC, of 22 September 1994 on the establishment of a
European Works Council or a procedure in Community-scale undertakings and Community-scale groups
of undertakings for the purposes of informing and consulting employees (2). Another Directive was also
adopted on 11 March 2002 by the Parliament and the Council with the aim of supplementing the
Community mechanism on the matter (Directive 2002/14/EC establishing a general framework relating to
information and consultation of workers in the Community (3)). The first two Directives were transposed in
the national laws of the Member States (the third having to be transposed only by 23 March 2005). It is
to appreciate their correct and effective
up to the competent national authorities (notably courts)
application in each case.

It is important to recall that the Directive 98/59/EC on the collective redundancies stipulates that, when an
employer envisages collective redundancies, it is required to carry out, in good time, consultations with the
workers’ representatives with a view to reaching an agreement. These consultations cover at least the
possibilities of avoiding or of reducing the collective redundancies as well as the possibilities of alleviating
their consequences by recourse to social accompanying measures aiming at,
in particular, aid for
redeployment and retraining of the redundant workers.

(1) OJ L 225, 12.8.1998.
(2) OJ L 254, 30.9.1994.
(3) OJ L 80, 23.3.2002.