Relocation in the context of regional development
The committee adopted the own-initiative report
drawn up by Alain HUTCHINSON (PES, BE) on relocation in the context of
regional development. MEPs stressed the need to ensure consistency between
regional development policy and competition policy, and added that public aid
should not provide a spur to the relocation of economic activity. They wanted
to see a Community-wide regulatory legal framework, with monitoring systems
to quantify the economic and social cost of any relocation. In this context
they called for the European Foundation on the Improvement of Living and
Working Conditions, based in
The report said that practices that are not conducive to the achievement of economic cohesion and the strategic goal of full employment, such as unjustified relocation likely to cause job losses, should not be financially supported by the EU. The Commission was urged to take measures adapting the new guidelines on national regional aid with a view to repayment of the aid granted to companies which relocate their plants within or, in particular, outside the EU. MEPs also suggested that the guidelines should allow the granting of public aid, as an emergency measure, in the event of major job losses even though the region concerned would not normally qualify for such aid.
The committee backed the Commission's idea, as part of the
reform of the Structural Funds, of penalising companies which, having
received EU aid, relocate their activity within seven years of the granting
of the aid. It also urged the Commission and the
Lastly, the report called on the Commission and the Member States to monitor the effective and targeted use of European funds, which should be focused on vocational training and the retraining of workers in regions affected by restructuring or relocation and, in particular, of those workers who have been directly affected by a job loss as a result of the relocation of their former employer.