Debate contributions by Rudi KENNES

Mr President, these are not good times for workers' rights. The von der Leyen Commission has decided to launch the attack on all fronts. But tomorrow we will vote on the revision of the directive on European Works Councils. This is a huge opportunity to achieve an improvement from Brussels for workers across Europe, an improvement for which we, together with the trade unions, have been fighting for sixteen years. Will it be perfect this time? Probably not. But it is definitely a step forward. This review will strengthen employee participation in their company. As former Vice-President of the European Works Council of General Motors Europe, I know perfectly well what is needed to improve employee participation. And that is crucial, because employee participation is good for the entire industry. Employees know their businesses better than anyone else and know what needs to be done to improve business. Research shows that companies that better involve their employees in important decisions work better than companies that don't. Employees have much more to offer their companies than just their hands. We must therefore not miss this opportunity and must finally give workers what they are entitled to. I look forward to the vote. At last it will become clear which parties are actually committed to the interests of working people and the question will be answered whether the right side of this parliament will betray those workers as always. I already have a suspicion.

Mr President, on the right side of this Parliament we hear that the future ban on cars with internal combustion engines must be reversed. This would supposedly be necessary to save European production and European jobs. But nothing is less true. This reversal serves only to secure the automotive industry’s short-term quarterly profits – an industry which, moreover, was hopelessly late in investing in green production and therefore missed the boat. Instead of investing in cheap electric cars, they continued to focus massively on heavy, polluting cars, while moving their production en masse to countries where workers are hardly paid and have little to no rights. Should European car workers pay the price, now that it turns out that this industry is not ready for the future at all? Definitely not. We must not be deceived by the lies of the right. European car workers do not benefit from a car industry that is heading towards the abyss at full speed. They need an industry that is ready for the future.

Mr President, Commissioner, what was the role of the EU in supporting peace efforts for Gaza? Nihil, zero, noppes, nada. European powers are repeating today the most abhorrent colonial racism that we thought would finally be a thing of the past. Not only are European leaders today redrawing the borders of Palestine without the Palestinians, but they are also simply watching women and children being massacred, without doing anything. Babies left in incubators to die do not form a red line. People in the Middle East are treated like mosquitoes, with no right to exist or defend themselves. Their struggle for survival is just an annoying stick in the wheel of our arms sales. These two years will therefore be remembered as an era in which this Commission and our governments tacitly authorised genocide and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. They should be ashamed. History will not acquit them and I hope that the judges in The Hague will not.

Mr President, I would also, of course, like to thank, on my behalf, all the firefighters and all those who have worked for civil protection and the like for all that they have done during this summer's catastrophe. After all, many of them have paid a high price, even with their lives. I am pleased that much is now being said and promised, but I also hope that something is actually being done. I am Belgian, just like the Commissioner. There were no forest fires with us, but some time ago we had floods. These are also natural phenomena. Many promises can be made, but I see in many Member States that emergency services are being cut back. It should be borne in mind that the protection of civilians is not only done by soldiers, but also by emergency services, by firefighters and by civil protection personnel. I therefore hope that a little more thought will be given here: less blind spending on military equipment and more investment in emergency services.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I do not know how you feel, but at least I am very ashamed. We have apparently already forgotten all the victims, as well as all the sacrifices made by our parents and grandparents to build a Europe of peace and justice after the chaos, hatred and the more than 80 million deaths during the two world wars. I thought we were done with colonialism, with white supremacy, with torture, with a waste of billions of guns. And yet we're here today and we're just looking on our cell phones at children and patients being burned alive, disabled civilians being torn apart by army-trained dogs, babies being left in incubators to die, doctors being tortured, hospitals and schools being bombed, journalists being killed and prisoners being raped, caesarean sections to be administered without anaesthesia. Colleagues, I appeal to your sense of ethics. We cannot and should not allow our leaders to make us complicit in all of this. We can't leave the world to psychopaths again. Our representatives must work for a world of peace and prosperity, not death and destruction.

Mr President, today we remember the millions who died fighting against fascism. And yet colleagues here wanted to give the Nobel Prize to a billionaire who does the Roman salute. Those nostalgic of fascism has no idea what it was like. The brutality, starvation and terror. The similarities today are worrying: criminalisation of dissent, militarism, poverty, disdain for workers and human rights. Fascism come back at times of economic and moral crisis when people's basic needs are not met they get frustrated. They are told they should blame refugees and not the greed of billionaires and the corruption of politicians. They think that the right wing populist will take care of them. Well they won't. Just like in the 1930s, fascist and liberal work together only in the interest of capital. If we really want to pay homage to the heroes who died for our freedom, we must stop sliding towards World War III and instead invest in our economies and societies. Anti-fascism today means promoting a Europe of peace and prosperity and saying no to war. Long live the Europe of peace born out of the resistance!

Mr President, ArcelorMittal made a profit of EUR 1.2 billion last year. In January 2024, the company received €850 million to decarbonise its production. In November 2024, the company announced its intention to close two plants and relocate jobs outside Europe. Flanders gave ArcelorMittal 600 million euros for the production of green steel, but this effort is now postponed due to energy insecurity. As a result, many jobs are expected to be lost in Ghent and Charleroi. Do we really need to give ArcelorMittal even more money, knowing that the company will do what it wants with it? Dismissing employees is a choice. Companies always prefer profit over people. This is capitalism. The privatisation of strategic sectors has already cost millions of jobs. These reforms imposed by the EU have not worked. The energy, automotive and steel sectors are interlinked. There is a need for an industrial policy that puts public ownership and workers at the centre. Companies, not people, have to pay for the transition through taxes. We need to demand that multinationals reinvest their profits to ensure a just transition.

Madam President, last week, the workers of the catering services in Parliament protested because management outsourced their work to private companies, and the way these companies treat them is simply not worthy of an institution that always complains about labour rights violations, but only abroad. Catering is currently outsourced to a British multinational. How do multinationals win these contracts? They place the lowest bid – which means low salaries and bad services. Today it is the catering, yesterday it was the creche, tomorrow the cleaning and also now the teachers. They all described a shocking situation: precarious contracts, huge workloads, low pay, high turnover and no certainty. These people are desperate, tired and feel humiliated. The EU should give a good example and not give contracts to these kind of industry cowboys. We want to see these services insourced, permanent good jobs, good pay and good working conditions. We will support these workers and their unions until they get what they deserve.

Madam President, Commissioner, colleagues, 'restructuring' – it's a kind of newspeak, isn't it? Companies are ashamed to say 'massive firing', so they call it 'restructuring'. In Belgium, we've had a few of them – in Limburg, 3 000 people fired in Liège, in Namur 500 people. How long will we allow the lives of workers to be collateral damage? Restructuring also happens in the public sector, which has been privatised. Automotive, steel, energy, chemical, airlines, communications, railways, mail, banks, insurance – you name it. Privatised and then restructured. No job security any more. Bosses want no rules, no administrative burdens. Governments want to run everything like a business, including healthcare. There is no funding for public services, but always for weapons. This cannot go on. You can't fix neoliberalism by putting a plaster on it, just like you cannot put lipstick on a pig. We need to put ordinary people at the heart of Europe. If you have a bad employer, it shouldn't be you who pays for their mistakes. They should respect the rules and cooperate with trade unions. We can develop a 21st century industrial policy. We can take back our public services and natural resources. We can create quality jobs and provide good services. Europe has the choice now. Continue to create uncertainty or invest and bring back a good standard of living for all.

Madam President, honourable Members, Commissioner, millions of jobs were lost in the automotive sector in the last 20 years – in Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and now also Germany. In the Commission's plan, there is one page about workers. They want to give them a little bit of unemployment benefits, then give them random jobs and waste their skills. Like Audi Brussels, for example: highly qualified workers trained to produce electric cars, now all fired. Instead of making electric cars, now they want to build weapons and move the production to Mexico. Absurd. It is the same with Van Hool, an ultra-modern bus company going bankrupt because the Flemish Government decided to buy buses outside of the EU. And the EU wakes up now, but this crisis started a long time ago, and they want again to give billions of your taxpayers' money to the same companies that created this crisis. As a former car worker, I refuse to be silent while my colleagues are getting fired by the thousands. We can make electric cars here for modern, clean mobility. We have the capacity, we have the skills, so let's do it.

Mr President, the Commission is presenting its Competitiveness Compass as a plan for growth. But in reality, it is an attack on social rights and the protection of workers. While wages are stagnating, pensions are under pressure and energy costs continue to rise, the Commission is scrapping rules for companies and pumping public funds into the arms industry. The Commission promises innovation, but refuses to break with the model that gives companies free rein. She talks about climate, but only when it can contribute to maximizing corporate profits. It lowers the thresholds for companies and increases the burden on employees. Europe has no Race to the Bottom It is necessary, but a path to social justice. What makes us stronger is investing in care, education and fair wages, not giving away taxpayers' money to support even bigger profits for multinationals. A Europe that puts people above profit is the future we are fighting for.

Mr President, Commissioner, we are constantly being told that the shortage of health workers is due to workers who demand high wages and who are fussy and lazy. But the truth is that thousands of workers are leaving this sector as a result of cuts in health care and the privatisation imposed by the European Union. The consequences are clear: poor working conditions, unbearable workload, short-term contracts, low wages, long working days, high drop-out rates, shrinking labour force and increasingly expensive education and training. Basic jobs in the healthcare sector are seen as jobs for the low-skilled. However, without these workers, who are often migrants, no one would take care of our relatives. There are so many passionate carers, nurses and young doctors who would love to continue working in the healthcare sector, but conditions are pushing them away. The EU does not have a decent policy to address labour shortages. This harms workers and patients. Health care is a basic right, not a privilege. Healthcare must remain in public hands and healthcare workers must be treated with respect.

Madam President, 'you get a tariff and you get a tariff and you all get a tariff'. This is Donald Trump's new favourite threat. At least when he's not threatening to buy or even invade your country, of course. He just announced a tariff on aluminium and steel which will have serious consequences for the European industrial sector and for industrial workers. And what's the European response? We deeply regret. Like Trump will care. It's ridiculous. Trump tariffs will hit Europe's working class hard, with higher prices and massive loss of jobs. But the EU does not care to protect its workers. No, no, no. They only care to please wealthy people like Trump, Musk and the other billionaires in the United States Government. We cannot be weak against Trump attacks. Europe needs to be strong and not by doing the same stupid things like Trump, but instead to work with other countries and partners around the globe. To fight for the working class of Europe, we need a foreign policy other than just being the lapdog of the United States.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Donald Trump once said that the word rates The best word was in the dictionary. He already announces that he will continue this policy with additional tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China. He calls for this to make America stronger, but let's be honest: It's just an attack on working people worldwide. Who pays the price? Not the billionaires and his cabinet, but ordinary people, because of higher prices and more uncertainty. Trump is waging an aggressive battle and dragging the rest of the world into his cold war. Its tariffs affect not only Chinese and Canadian goods, but also European industry. Our future is at stake here. This is not economic protection. These are the last convulsions of a system in decline, capitalism. Fortunately, change is in our hands. The world is changing and it is up to us to fight for fair trade, a fairer socialist perspective. So no Trump tariffs, no economic blackmail. Together and resolutely, we say: No way, we won’t pay!

Mr President, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis announced last week that it wants to cut 170 jobs in its branch in Puurs, Belgium, where more than 1000 employees work. Not a happy new year for employees and their families. They are faced with uncertainty. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and is very profitable. It is only recently that workers in the pharmaceutical sector were considered essential during the COVID crisis and that flexibility was requested to deliver vaccines quickly. But if sales stagnate a little, if the billion-dollar gain is not expected, then the staff is the first to be saved. Guarantees were given to maintain employment. Governments have created a tax-friendly regime. But it all turns out to be worthless today. For these multinationals, profits are never high enough. It is unacceptable that such profitable companies should be forced into employment. We are again calling for a moratorium on redundancies in profitable companies. All my support to the trade unions, workers, servants and their families for the preservation of their jobs.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, after 15 months and more than 50,000 deaths, 70% of which are women and children, a ceasefire is finally under way. At last the people in Gaza can breathe and humanitarian aid enters Gaza. The European Union welcomes the ceasefire, but the EU has done nothing to achieve it. The EU has done nothing to stop the killings. And let's be honest, a ceasefire is still not peace. This ceasefire was achieved thanks to the global mobilisation for solidarity with Palestine, without which this Parliament would have long forgotten the existence of the ongoing genocide. Will the EU do anything this time to end the war? In that case, the European Union must now impose sanctions on Israel and denounce the Association Agreement. In that case, the EU must stop supplying arms and help bring Mr Netanyahu and the other war criminals to justice. The illegal settlements must be dismantled and the occupation stopped. What are you guys waiting for, anyway?

Mr President, in Antwerp we have already seen the consequences of subcontracting at Borealis and PostNL. A jumble of subcontracting where a cat can no longer find its young. Recently, a university study showed that there are an average of sixteen subcontractors with up to seven different layers of subcontracting. The European Union's arbitrary austerity rules force Member States and local authorities to award public contracts to the cheapest bid. This creates a whole chain of subcontractors who do not care about collective agreements. The result? Employees come into precarious jobs with poor pay and working conditions. The EU urgently needs to review the austerity rules and the Public Procurement Directive and legislate on subcontracting. We really need to limit outsourcing and subcontracting as much as possible. What we need is a blacklist of companies that refuse to abide by collective bargaining agreements. We also need to make more money available for labour inspectorates. We cannot allow the so-called free market to destroy the rights of our workers or our public services. Equal rights for all workers now.

Mr President, I am very concerned about the large number of European politicians who are trying to restrict workers' rights to strikes and collective agreements. Just as we are facing unprecedented corporate greed and direct attacks on workers' rights. Take the Arizona coalition in Belgium, for example. They're not even in government yet, and yet they're already talking about restricting the right to strike and attacking the unions. In addition, they want to weaken the protection of trade union representatives. Finally, they want to promote individual negotiations to divide the working class. It is not much better in Europe. Wherever the right, and certainly the extreme right, comes to power, we see attacks on workers' rights. They are the enemies of the workers, despite what they say during the elections. All progressive forces must fight together against these authoritarian attacks and continue to stand up for the right to protest, collective bargaining and democracy at work. We must never forget that the trade unions were always the first goal of fascists. We'll never let that happen again. No pasará.

Mr President, Commissioner, energy prices are skyrocketing once again. And do you know what that means for ordinary people in Europe? This means that more and more people have to make the choice between a hot meal or heating their home. This is a disaster for ordinary families, who face fears every time they expect their energy bills. But it is also a disaster for the industry. Only the largest multinationals can conclude more or less long-term contracts today. But ordinary people and SMEs depend on the whims of the free market you so acclaimed. There is a threat of a tsunami of company closures, largely due to the current high energy prices in Europe. It is very important to re-establish public control for that energy, and therefore for prices, so that we can offer everyone lower and more stable energy prices. Because that's good for the people, that's good for the families, but it's also good for the industry. Here in the European bubble it is of course nice and warm. But out here, it's a completely different story. What are you going to do about it?

Mr President, I did indeed want to intervene on the basis of Rule 136, but you have already referred to the reason why the President of the European Council is not here. I would have liked to ask a few questions in connection with the European Council meetings that have passed, but I cannot ask my question. I note that it is not only today that there is apparently a structural problem with Mr Michel. He has only been here once this year and that is a structural problem. I think we are paying Mr Michel enough to at least show a little respect for this Parliament. That is why I believe that Parliament should demand that he come here. Why do we pay him so much if he is not accountable in this House? And soon he will get a win for life for all that beauty, something that ordinary Europeans can only dream of. Madam President, that is really not okay.

Mr President, the European steel industry is faltering and it is time for action. Steel is the backbone of construction, the transport sector and actually the entire industry. With three hundred thousand direct jobs and two million indirect jobs, the steel industry is of enormous importance. Nevertheless, ArcelorMittal, the largest steel producer in Europe, risks relocating its production outside Europe, mainly due to high energy prices. That's why we need to intervene now. Stable and cheap renewable energy is crucial for the future of industry and for the necessary industrial transition. This requires massive public investment. But we must also dare to look at the profit. Operating profit of €10 billion has been achieved in the last three years. The main question is: What happened to that? Instead of investing, the company is now threatening to leave. We cannot accept that at all. Those profits should go back to society so that the jobs stay here, and especially to the people who made the company successful. I am therefore on the side of the trade unions and all the people who are trying to prevent these plans.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Audi Forest in Brussels has received considerable public support to build electric cars, but has chosen to use it to build an expensive luxury model that is inaccessible to ordinary consumers. As a result, the sales figures are disappointing. Audi is now considering closing the plant, putting thousands of jobs at risk. Above all, we condemn Audi's policy. Audi refuses not only to consult with the trade unions, but also with governments. This is unacceptable to us. How can a company that has received so much from the community shut down today and refuse to engage in dialogue with that same community? This problem transcends Brussels and Belgium. All over Europe, automotive factories are under pressure. Audi Forest could be the first domino to fall. That is why the European Commission must act now. The need for a plan is high and that plan is there. Our plan contains concrete measures such as a European moratorium on the closure of such companies. We are going to need these kinds of companies to be able to realize the necessary transition tomorrow. A legal obligation is needed for car manufacturers to maintain existing jobs in the sector and, in particular, the obligation for European manufacturers to produce affordable electric cars. We propose this plan because it would be a shame that today the working class has to pay again for the failure of the so-called free market economy. So the situation calls for immediate action and we have a plan. Where is your plan, Mrs von der Leyen?