Speeches

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, like an anti-Midas, the European Commission is destroying everything it touches. Having destroyed our economy, our industry and our competitiveness, it is now seeking to undermine our vocational training policies. Le seul exploit dont la Commission pourra se targuer est celui de réussir à épuiser le pactole. So what can we expect from her when she looks at the training of workers? For example, the Traineeships Directive, whose work has just started: the Commission is not even able to propose correct definitions to define a trainee. In this situation, his proposal can only lead to the weakening of our training channels. Obviously, it's not about staying passive either. Nevertheless, it would be a good idea to entrust these files to competent people rather than to technocrats isolated from the outside world. When we know the Commission's tests for recruiting its own staff, we prefer not to involve it in the vocational training of the Member States.

Mr President, the disastrous policy of the European Union is now threatening our steel industry. Reims and Denain in France, Geel in Belgium: Here are the next three victims of this rampage. ArcelorMittal, which is suffering from an unfavourable economic context – to which the European institutions are no stranger – has not only chosen to close three of its industrial sites, but has also suspended its decarbonisation-related investments, notably in Dunkirk, explaining that they are unsustainable in the current European economic context. While the construction of Europe promised us prosperity, it shows today, since the Maastricht Treaty, that Europe is not only unable to develop its industry, but that it is not even able to preserve the sites it still has. Europe is dying of its incompetent technocracy, which only knows how to suffocate the entire continent under standards while subjecting us to unfair competition from countries that produce under much less restrictive environmental and socio-economic conditions than what is imposed on the European steel industry.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, what happens when a spineless neoliberal organisation, such as the European Commission, seeks to meddle in the social policies of its Member States? Surprisingly, we do not get a programmed proposal to protect people, but rather an anti-social policy. On the one hand, with her Orwellian Novlangue, she will speak of "active old age" to avoid assuming her will to keep us working longer and longer. On the other hand, under the guise of a shortage of workers, it is increasingly promoting immigration, seeking to open the floodgates for the benefit of a foreign and hard-working workforce. This political project is intolerable, and it always penalizes the same. It is built against nations and is deeply anti-European. We must oppose it, to preserve our people and our pensioners.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am addressing you today to talk about a sector in danger: that of wood. In 2020, all major trade unions and employers in the wood processing industry took the initiative of a joint declaration to stop the massive export of logs to Asia, and particularly to China. The export of unprocessed wood is taking on worrying proportions, and not only for oak – as is the case in the forest of Mormal, which is dear to me. All species are affected or will be affected in the short term. Many carpenters, craftsmen, builders and parquet manufacturers are alarmed because they are worried about their future. If sawmills are deprived of supply, the whole sector will be affected in the short term. In a context of shortage of materials, it is therefore suicidal to allow the situation to continue without reacting. Wood has become a strategic resource, an integral part of our sovereignty, and a key to carbon neutrality. It is high time for the European Union to take up this issue. Thousands of jobs are at stake in France and Europe.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the European Commission finally seems to care about its car industry. What a waste of time, which could have prevented the closure of the factories PSA Aulnay-sous-Bois, Renault in Flins-sur-Seine and so many others in Europe. So many employees would have liked the European Union to be by their side before losing their jobs. This statement by the Commission looks like an admission of failure. The dogma of free trade led to the disappearance of our factories and jobs and pushed us to import our cars. All this with the complicity of a European Union for which protectionism sounds almost like a dirty word. Now the Commission is alarmed at the consequences of its own decisions. It imposes the use of electric vehicles, without asking whether our industry is ready to take up this challenge in the face of foreign competition. The real challenge is not only to determine what the car of tomorrow will be, but where it will be made. The aim here is to ensure economic dynamism that generates wealth and jobs, thus ensuring Europe's prosperity and independence. Two key words for this: protect and support. Protecting our industry from foreign competition and supporting our factories by providing them with a favourable tax and regulatory environment.