Subject: Announcement of closure of the Mahle plant in Vilanova i la Geltrú
On 17 November, the company Mahle announced to its workers that it plans to cease all activity on 20 January 2022, after a history spanning more than 75 years of contributing to the development of the industrial fabric of Vilanova i la Geltrú. After a few days, the company changed this decision, with the possibility of the redundancies of some 312 workers, thus removing the possibility of an industrial conversion of the Mahle plant and creating a ripple effect on a number of parallel companies that will be condemned to closure by Mahle’s situation. However, the company is set to receive Next Generation funding for three of its plants in Spain.
1. Is there a control mechanism put in place by the Commission to ensure that a company that relocates is not eligible for Next Generation EU funds?
2. Is the Commission considering restricting access to European funds for companies that promote the closure of profitable production plants and cause job losses where they are located?
3. What alternatives can the Commission offer to avoid this closure in the industrial sector, which has sustained 50% of the redundancies in Catalonia in 2021?
Answer given by Mr Schmit on behalf of the European Commission
(22 June 2022)
NextGenerationEU is a temporary recovery instrument that channels funds through several EU programmes, each one governed by a distinct Regulation (Recovery and Resilience Facility, REACT-EU, Just Transition Fund, Rural Development, InvestEU, Horizon Europe, rescEU).
The Just Transition Fund Regulation (1) includes a requirement that productive investments do not lead to or result from relocation.
Similarly, under REACT-EU (2), governed by the existing rules of the Cohesion Fund, there is requirement of repayment of the EU support to an infrastructure investment if there is cessation of activity or any other substantial change within the first five years (3).
Addressing plant closure cases lays primarily within Member State competences. The Commission can act complementarily (4). The EU played an active role in establishing a legal framework for managing restructuring and developed policies and funding opportunities. The EU Quality Framework for anticipation of change and restructuring synthesises a collection of good practices in this area.
In addition, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) (5) has been mobilised 161 times to support 156 000 dismissed workers in 21 Member States.
The automotive sector can benefit from measures under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (6). The Spanish Recovery and Resilience Plan, approved in July 2021, comprises important investments and reforms in the area of sustainable mobility, including to boost innovation and value chains for electric vehicles.
⋅1∙ Regulation (EU) 2021/1056 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 June 2021 establishing the Just Transition Fund, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R1056
⋅2∙ Regulation (EU) No 2020/2221, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32020R2221
⋅3∙ Art 71 of the regulation EU 1303/2013 and Article 65 of the regulation EU 2021/1060.
⋅4∙ Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Article 147, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/treaty/tfeu_2012/oj
⋅5∙ https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_2446
⋅6∙ Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021 establishing the Recovery and Resilience Facility https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32021R0241&from=EN