20.3.2004   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 70/224

1.

Has Melka been in receipt of Community aid during its time in Portugal?

2.

What measures does the Commission intend to take to protect the employment of these workers, given that Portugal today has the fastest growing unemployment rate in the European Union?

1.

The Commission hereby informs the Honourable Member that the MELKA company received Community financial assistance during CSF I (1990-1993), in particular EUR 1 095,44 under the European Social Fund in 1991.

2.

In recent years, the Union has developed a worker involvement policy for dealing adequately with the social consequences of company restructuring. As a result of that policy, restructuring operations must be preceded by information and consultation of employees' representatives with the aim of avoiding or reducing their social impact, in accordance with the Community Directives on ‘Collective Redundancies’ (1), ‘Transfers of Undertakings’ (2), ‘European Works Councils’ (3) and, from March 2005 onwards, ‘Information and Consultation’ (4).

As regards the case in question, the Commission has not been informed about the way in which the Melka company intends to deal with the social implications.

The aforementioned Directives have been transposed in the Member State concerned. It is therefore up to the national authorities to ensure that the workers’ rights laid down in these Directives are respected. Directive 2002/14/EC establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees must be transposed into national law by 25 March 2005 at the latest.

The Commission argues that, when restructuring, enterprises should always take into account the effects that those decisions could have on their employees as well as on the social and regional context. This has recently been underlined in the Commission Communication concerning Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) — A business contribution to Sustainable Development (5).

Furthermore, in January 2002 the Commission invited the European social partners to engage in a dialogue on anticipating and managing change with a view to applying a dynamic approach to the social aspects of corporate restructuring. The social partners have recently sent to the Commission the results of their joint work on this topic. They consist of a set of reference guidelines for companies and their workers in the event of restructuring. The Commission very much hopes that these results, as well as other follow-up actions, will disseminate throughout Europe good practices of corporate restructuring, thus helping companies and their workers adequately to address the social dimension involved.