Frankrijk wil dat 'Brussel' Hewlett Packard verbiedt om 6.000 banen in Europa te schrappen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission gave a muted response to calls from Paris asking it to look into US company Hewlett Packard's decision to cut around 6,000 jobs in Europe, the brunt of which will be felt in France.

"I received a formal request from the French government to analyse this issue", said commission president Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday (21 September).

He went on to say that the commission can only give a limited response to the situation.

It is not within the Commission's power to prevent companies from laying people off, that is the responsibility of the government of the country involved, the president indicated.

But he did add there are some areas where the commission could look to see if help could be found.

"In terms of this specific situation, we will, of course, scrutinise the entire process. Obviously all the circumstances will be looked at by the Commission, but the most urgent question, is to see what can be done to help those who are laid off be reintegrated into the workforce.

"We will have to see what financial aid we can find within our existing funds to help", he said mentioning both the EU's structural and social funds as possible options.

"We have to have some kind of buffer to protect people from the shocks caused by globalisation", he said.

Learning the lesson

However, the president could not resist using the situation as a moral to be learnt for the refusal by some member states, among them France, to spend more on the EU budget.

He reminded governments that member states had rejected the commission's idea for a "growth adjustment fund" of €1 billion per year for the next EU budget 2007-2013, which could be an instrument to use in such a situation.

"I renew my appeal to them ... to think again", he said adding that it is "unreasonable" to reject commission initiatives to have a social policy.

Negotiations on the next EU budget are still ongoing after European leaders failed to reach an agreement on the issue in June.