DISCOURS – SPEECHS
ALEAS DU GOUVERNEMENT D’ENTREPRISE
DEVELOPPEMENT INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL
THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL GOALS
OF
THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF
EMPLOYED SHAREHOLDERS IN A EUROPEAN CONTEXT
BY
JEAN-AYMON MASSIE
PRESIDENT
OF AVAS GROUPS ELF AND TOTALFINA
PRESIDENT OF THE EAES
BERLIN, 1999-11-24
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am very happy to be received at your famous
university in the month of the 10th anniversary of the fall of the
Berlin wall, a symbolic act which came about due to the combined forces of the
wisdom of the older generation and the audacity of the young.
I am glad that Germany has been reunited and that
the Government is installed in Berlin. This will be a considerable asset to
Germany on entering the 3rd millennium and will no doubt help to
contribute to the success of the EURO zone.
I wish to thank professor ROGGEMANN for his
invitation and Jens LOWITSCH for his assistance which today enable me to speak
to this assembly and to present the political and social aims of the European
Association of Employee Shareholders in the European context.
Before presenting these goals, I wish to describe
the process which in France has enabled the creation of employee profit-sharing
and savings schemes. For many employees, these represent an important nest egg
and make up a considerable percentage of their income.
I would like to make my presentation in three
parts:
1. The
first part concerns the 3 stages of the profit-sharing process in
France
- This
has enabled the constitution of considerable employee savings in the short term
and will in the future enable long term savings towards additional retirement
income.
- It has
also led to the creation of Employee Share Ownership and Associations of
Employee Shareholders to represent them.
2. The
second part concerns the political and social aims of the EAES.
- in
the European context; this covers the evolution of profit-sharing in the EURO
zone countries and economic changes in Europe
-
and the goals and missions of the EAES.
FIRST PART.
The concepts of "participation" and
employee share ownership in France are closely linked. These 2 expressions
which anglophones call Employee Share Ownership have the same objective;
·
Participation under different aspects
(participation in profits, participation in the management and strategy of the
company) is an aim.
·
EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP is a decisive step in reaching this aim.
Allow me
to explain them briefly, as they are at the origin of the French initiative to
set up a European Association of Employee Shareholders.
The French model of profit-sharing was adopted 40
years ago at the demand of General de Gaulle who introduced by an edict issued
on January 7, 1959 "a contractual system of worker participation in
company profits". An edict issued on August 17th, 1967
confirmed that "the participation in the profits of the company is a
recognised right in all companies employing more than 100 workers".
This was the defined objective which was taken by
other European countries and adapted according to the national culture and to
economic and social realities.
The PEPPER REPORT I and II works towards this,
slowly but surely, in the EURO zone countries. In his study, entitled "the
framework of Employee Participation for a new social Europe" Professor
ROGGEMANN analysed the transformation process currently in progress.
I would differentiate 3 stages in the development
of profit-sharing and, consequently, in the resulting Employee Share Ownership:
·
1st
stage: 1960-1986,
participation in results
·
2nd
stage: 1986-1998
participation in capital
·
3rd
stage: From 1998 onwards,
participation in decision-making
n
THE FIRST
STAGE
« EMPLOYEE
PROFIT SHARING »
In the first stage,
between 1960 and 1986, profit sharing was developed further with a series of
laws implemented by employers, employee working parties and trade unions.
·
The ordinance dated January 17,
1959 setting up a contractual association or
participation scheme for company workers.
·
The ordinance dated August
17, 1967
stated that sharing the fruits of success of the company is a right vested in
very employee and provided for the setting up a compulsory scheme for companies
employing more that 100 individuals.
·
The law dated December 27, 1973 supplemented
these provisions.
This
profit sharing structure took 3 forms:
1.
an annual employee profit sharing : it is a way to redistribute to the
employees part of the company’s profit
2.
An
annual all employee incentive premium ( the premium is calculated on the
company’s results and on the employees performances)
3. in
addition, an annual employer matching contribution (matching shares) is
allocated to the employee if he invests exclusively in his company’s shares. It
can also be described as a company saving schemed made up of investments funds
collecting annual employee contributions blocked for a 5 years period but tax
free.
·
The
PEPPER REPORT came out
at this preliminary stage: a lot of European countries that had adopted the
first solution, a share in the firm annual profits, didn’t go beyond this
stage.
·
In
France, a great number of companies did not go beyond this
first stage either because share capital was not offered to employees at each
capital increase or free share issue, or simply because in the case of private
or family run firms, company directors did not wish employees to have a stake
in the capital of the company.
In
France, by the end of 1994, 17,500 companies employing 4,7 million individuals
had entered into a profit sharing agreement. 6 out of 10 of these companies had
sufficient profits to be able to provide for the 1994 financial year payable in
1995 :
·
by way of annual profit sharing, 17,6 billion FRF
were shared out amongst 3,2 million employees, that is to say an average of
5,500 FRF per employee.
·
Under the bonus and top up scheme, 9,4 billion FRF
were paid out to 2,1 million employees, that is to say, an average amount of
4,500 FRF per employee.
At ELF AQUITAINE, annual profit sharing
was implemented as early as 1968. President Guillaumat, founder of the company
was a former minister of General de Gaulle. During this period, we saw the
value of the Elf shares climb from 400 FRF to 1,500 FRF.
In
today’s terms, I reckon that the overall amount of this profit share, i.e. that
is part of invested in shares (bearing in mind that a part remained invested in
interest bearing blocked accounts in the company, and another part in bonds)
did not exceed 1% of the share capital.
The
Group was a state owned enterprise, with the State owning 70% of the capital,
with negotiations taking place between employee representatives (the unions)
and general management representatives (personnel and finance departments).
Management took a keen interest in the framework which emerged as there were
considerable financial benefits to be gained on the one hand and the proposals
provided a strong incentive to staff and encouraged staff efficiency.
Such
profit sharing was seen to be an instrument in the wages policy in most French
companies.
n the second stage
“THE
HOLDING OF SHARES BY EMPLOYEES”
The privatisation program of major French
companies set in motion in 1986, boosted employee share holding schemes.
On this occasion, employees were able to
subscribe to 10% of the privatised capital on very favourable terms:
·
10% discount, interest free payments spread over 12
to 18 months,
·
capital gains exemption but subject to a five year
share holding lock-in with respect to shares subscribed for pursuant to a
specially designed enterprise share savings scheme.
As a
result of employees holding shares in major privatised French companies as
early as 1986, employee savings were immediately doubled or trebled. The
percentage of shares held by employees and retired employees in their company
leapt from 1% to 5% at Elf, and from 7% to 10% in banks or smaller industrial
companies. At the same time, State withdrawal from such companies brought
strong growth in their stock market capitalisation value, together with a
strong increase in the value of employee savings.
During
this second stage, a special legislation was voted :
·
Laws dated July 2nd
and August 6t,h 1986
relating to the implementation of privatisation program.
·
The ordinance dated 21st
October 1986, relating to employee bonus, profit sharing and share holding
schemes. Company saving schemes became the main vector for
employee share holding with tax breaks for employees and companies being
significantly enhanced. For the first time, the term “Employee Share Ownership” was used.
·
The privatisation law dated July 19, 1993
relating to 21 major French companies (manufacturing, banks and insurance
companies, including Elf, BNP, Rhone Poulenc, Usinor Sacilor, AGF, UAP) and the
creation of a “Golden Share” for the State.
·
At the same time, a law dated 23rd
December 1988 set forth the framework for
common investment funds, the purpose of which was to shelter shares subscribed
for on privatisation and managed by the supervisory board which itself either
exercised the voting rights attached to the shares (article 20), or returned
them to shareholders (article 21).
·
The supervisory Board is made up on an equal basis
of trade union representatives elected by staff and representatives from
general management. This is the situation at Elf and in other companies. The
chairman of the supervisory boar, a trade unionist, can in this manner gain a
seat on the Board of the company (after being elected by the shareholders
general assembly).
#
Between 1989 and 1992, AVAS actively promoted the return of the right to vote to employed
shareholders to enable them to vote at General Assemblies and to feel more like
shareholders rather than employees.
At Elf
Aquitaine privatisation was implemented in two stages: October
1986 and February 1994.
u
The
first stage of the privatisation –
October 1986: 10% of the share capital was made available and employees
were entitled to subscribe for 10% of the 10% i.e. 1% of the capital. 15,500
employees (out of 80,000) subscribed for 1,3 million shares at a price of 275
FRF (after benefiting from a 10% discount).
However, withdrawals from the company share scheme
(the end of the 5 year block, early retirement as a result of restructuring)
had a disturbing effect upon the percentage of the capital held.
To
maintain a significant level of employee share ownership and make up for state
withdrawal, AVAS has striven to promote
a two yearly capital increases reserved for employees equal to 1%, on the same
terms as the initial privatisation (discount, credit terms and five year block
in a savings scheme).
We had
to convince the Chairman, the personnel department, the minister of finance and
the stock Exchange Commission of the benefits of such a scheme.
Lobbying
such is a good example of the benefits which can derived from an employee
shareholder association. At the time, 1% of Elf’s capital had a value of 1
billion francs, which constitutes a very significant investment!
Accordingly,
three successive capital increases reserved for employees (present and retired)
set up:
·
June
1992 : 1.5 million shares (discount 10%, 50% top up on
the amount paid by the employee, capped at 3,000FRF, with payments spread over
12 months with interest free salary deductions).
·
March
1996: 2 million shares (20% but no top up).
·
December
1997 : 1.5 million shares (20% discount) were subscribed
for by 25,000 employees, present and past, with a wider international
participation.
u Meanwhile the second Elf
privatisation was implemented in February
1994 and the state which had held 70% of the capital, thereafter accounted for
only 0,5% but it also held the Golden share. The impact of the stable group of
French institutional investors was reduced significantly and employee shareholders became the largest
single shareholder in the company with 5% of the capital.
The 1994
privatisation made 73,000 employees shareholders: 65,000 French and Foreign
current employees and 8,000 retired employees. Out of a total of 12 million
shares, employees accounted for 700 000 million shares (with a 20% discount on
the public price, with payments spread over a period of 24 months and with an
allocation of 20 free shares for 46 purchased and held for 3 years).
This was
an excellent deal for the employee shareholders and significantly enhanced their
shareholdings which when calculated as at 31 December 1998 was approximately 13
million shares (5% of the capital) and were held in the company’s savings
schemes.
Today,
in the new group Elf TOTALFINA, the 130,000 employee shareholders should hold
at least 23 million shares, that is to say 3% of the total capital of the new
group (700 million shares) with a value of 20 billion FRF. Accordingly, employee savings are currently worth 20 billion FRF.
1. The trade union organisations
were at first against privatisation (they considered that privatisation was
tantamount to treason) and they remained silent and away from the negotiations.
They were in a confused state about this change where employees became
capitalists.
A new body was bought into
existence: the present and past employees shareholder
association – being a new representative body, long awaited by management
and the principal central service units (personnel and finance departments) and
the Public Authorities.
AVAS
was founded in the group Elf in 1986. It is a voluntary association as the
decision to buy shares is a voluntary action. It has served as a model to 17
shareholder associations which were subsequently created in France on the
privatisation of major French groups. We will come back to this later on.
2. Senior Management was mobilised and
transformed into messengers for the benefits of privatisation throughout the
group. This method worked well. Management was enthralled by the possibility to
purchase a maximum number of shares and in securing an excellent deal.
The management rallied to this new dimension of the
company, to its new relationships in the Group which had grown considerably and
taken on an international dimension.
The senior managers were conscious of the growing
power of Employee Shareholders and began to join Employee Share ownership
associations in France. This was particularly the case at Elf.
This
is all very well but much remains to be done to ensure that Employee Share
Ownership is fully taken into account and that our demands are satisfied both
in respect of participation in the management of the company and participation
in strategic decisions.
n THIRD STAGE
“PARTICIPATION IN DECISIONS”
This is
the natural consequence of employee participation in capital. It is a logical
and ineluctable evolution. However, it is hard to have it accepted by the
French Employer Association (MEDEF), by the managing elite of the state, and by
traditionalist heads of companies.
This is the next stage which should be accomplished during
the course of the next ten years.
The
employee shareholder does not become a “capitalist”, but a co-owner of his
company; it is a status that gives him
rights but also obligations.
Professor
ROGGEMANN has used the words entrepeneurial codetermination”, an expression
that has recently been used by the chairman of the company Bull who presented
the employed shareholders as “co-entrepreneurs”.
But
there is still lots to be done in companies as participation is still often
considered as an ordinary instrument of pay policy.
Yet, it
represents an amount of 232 billion francs in 1998.
A debate
was started in 1999 at the French parliament on the evolution of profit sharing
and the setting up of pension funds “à la française”. I will answer to your
questions on this topic, but I would like to remind that we have to make the
difference between 2 savings types.
There
are in France 700,000 employees who are shareholders of their companies, 1
million in Germany, and about 1,500, 000 in United Kingdom.
The employees save
in order to prepare an additional retirement income has a long term objective
(10years and more); this employee savings is invested in diverse values and not
only in the company’s shares for
security reasons.
But the employee will still have to make an additional
savings effort and the company will become tomorrow a huge centre where savings
are collected in competition with the bankers and the insurers!
There
are many privatisation programs in France (Thomson, Crédit Lyonnais,
Aérospatiale…)….like in the rest of Europe, Italy, Portugal, and Germany. They
happen in all the countries where the State needs to disengage themselves of
the capital of state owned companies in order to reduce its and in order to
satisfy the Maastricht criteria. It is the case for the countries of the EURO
zone, but it also applies to the eastern European countries who will join the
EC in the next few years.
In France, the associations are non profit and they are
governed by a 1901 law. AVAS was founded 13 years ago and has driven the
founding of associations in 17 companies. AVAS has 3,500 members and sympathisers. These 18 companies
regroup more than 500,000 employed shareholders and the market capitalisation
of their savings can be evaluated at an amount approaching 100 billion francs.
When the Trade
Unions were forced to the conclusion that they were backward on this topic,
they have started to press on and plead in favour of share ownership, and also
pension funds, so that they could catch up.
They wanted to negotiate in the name of the employed
shareholders, but the associations of employed shareholders have made sure that
their area of competence has been preserved.
In Elf,
the Trade unions are represented on the board of directors by 2 representatives
who are elected (by all the staff) for a period of 6 years : 1 is a
representative of the employees, and the other is a representative of the
management. Since last year, a representative
of the employed shareholders has sit in the director board (he is member of the
board of AVAS) and was elected during the general assembly.
Today, we can establish a positive evaluation of the
situation within the French companies.
The 3rd stage
of participation : involvement in
corporate decision-making; it is the corollary of capital participation. It is
going to be the challenge of the next
decade.
This passage onto the 3rd step is already well
under way. It will be accelerated and made easier by (1)new law texts ( the
reform of corporate law), (2)by recommendations made by the European Commission
(a project of a new European society is under way), and in a quite innovative
way by the principles of corporate governance. All the listed companies will
have to respect those principles in order to preserve their shareholders’
trust.
Under the influence of
Anglo-Saxon pension funds ( they were obliged to do so by the US laws
which forced them to exercise their responsibilities as shareholders),
principles of good practice have been drawn up. They have been adopted
progressively by the French companies since 1997. These principles mainly require :
·
Transparent and truthful accounting
·
Independent and accountable directors
·
High-calibre and effective worker and employer
representatives
·
All shareholders must receive respect and regular
information
·
Clear, well-conceived strategies with a long term
business vision focused on core skills
·
Motivated, innovative and productive employees.
This implies that a strong, motivated and organised group of employed
shareholders is an asset for the company.
·
Acknowledgement of the key role of the general
meeting of shareholders
In
return, they demand to know if their
money is being well managed, that the company is achieving sustainable growth,
and how the share will behave on a long term period.
The
employed shareholders are also long term investors. Both advocate a long term
strategy geared to investment which will create jobs and secure competitiveness
and sustainability.
The
co-operation between these 2 categories
of shareholders will led us to step over the 3rd stage.
The
guardians of the principles of corporate governance are the members of the ICGN that was founded in 1995 by William
B. CRIST, chairman of CALPERS.
The
network assets value is worth today 6 trillion of US$.
# Within Elf, the principles that were recommended
by a French report written by Marc VIENOT have been applied since 1996.
But there is still a lot of progress to be made concerning
the change of mentalities and behaviours. The passage from the public sector to
the private sector is still recent thing for many companies, as well as for the
men who are its main wealth (richness).
It is only at this stage that participation will
begin to change the individuals working in a company : if they feel co-owners,
responsible, bound, the employees will also
be more motivated and feel and
inclined to innovate, surpass themselves during a negotiation, the execution or
the running of a project, respect the terms of a contract imposed by the client.
Individuals will be willing to ask themselves every
morning : “what can I do to improve my company’s competitiveness and increase
the value of my savings!!”.
Lastly, due to the vigilant presence of share
ownership, which is a necessary counterweight to the other institutional
shareholders, we can hope that within the companies the primacy of human factor
will be restored upon the economic and financial factor.
----------------
second part
the
political and social goals of the AEAS
in a
european context:
n 1. the european context :
evolution of the
Participation in the countries of the
EURO zone and the economic changes in Europe :
Mergers and acquisitions
between companies are a new challenge for Employee Share Ownership.
Participation could be an answer to social Europe. The adoption of Participation in most EC countries was slow
and has been balance.
Employee
Share Ownership which is born (developed) in these countries has to answer to a
new challenge : how can it
counterbalance the increasing power of the institutional shareholders?
The institutional
shareholders control today between 75% and 80% of the capital of the listed
companies (notably those who make up the national share index DAX, FOOTSE, CAC
40, EURO 50)
The
EURO Zone which has become the domestic market, will lead to a necessary
recombining of the 3 following fabrics : industrial, banking, and service.
The
selection has become severe : in Italy for instance, out of the 8 or 10 banks
that are in competition, one can assume that there will be only 2 or 3 big
banks at the end of this change. These banks will become later on cross-border
by reaching into partnership agreements with the Spanish groups HBS or BBV.
Germany
gave the example of concentration in the European sector of telecommunication.
The
merger between ELF and TOTALFINA is the beginning of concentrations in the
energy sector.
Also,
the sector of aeronautic and military industry is going through turmoil; it is
concentrating, merging in order to take
up the challenge of globalisation and conquer planetary market shares.
This
wave of mergers of European companies is likely to cause job losses, especially
unqualified or jobs or where there are superfluous staff.
It is
the "economic horror" announced by Viviane FORRESTER in her
presageful book.
In
this context, social Europe becomes a reality. If politicians, "social
partners", company heads, those in charge of Employee Shareholder
Associations, universities, do not anticipate events in order to bring a
concrete reply, social Europe will blow up in our faces like a time bomb or a
landmine.
The
introduction of profit-sharing in began in the United Kingdom after the war,
under the impetus of the Californian economist Louis KELSO, author of the
"Capitalist Manifesto"; published in 1958.
In the
same period, the first edicts of General de Gaulle in France were issued.
n 2. GOALS AND MISSIONS OF EAES
The idea
of creating a European Association came to me during a symposium at the Elf
Tower in May 1977 with Senator Philippe Marini and Philippe Jaffré, the
Chairman of Elf. The subject was the modernisation of company law. I launched
this idea in the financial press, in particular in an article entitled
"towards a European Association or Federation of Employee
Shareholders" published in the AGEFI on May 23rd, 1997.
On May 6th,
1999, after a period of observation, contacts and unfruitful attempts, we
succeeded in setting up EAES whose statutes were registered and published in
Belgium.
There are 12 founder members and the Executive
Office consists of 13 members.
At the
last meeting of the Board of Directors (18 members) which took place in Paris
at the beginning of October, the aims of EAES were confirmed and 2 priority
lines of action were proposed for the year 2000.
EAES HAS 3 MAIN GOALS :
w1rst Goal :
TO INFLUENCE THE EUROPEAN AUTHORITIES: ON THE ONE HAND,
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND, ON THE OTHER HAND, THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT with
the aim of making official in the texts the status, the role and the means of
action of national associations, sometimes grouped into national federations,
clubs or institutes which co-ordinate their activities.
The imminent adoption of the statutes of the
European limited company is a good time to integrate the status of minority
shareholders and, by this means, that of Employee Shareholder Associations.
- We recommend
that the European Commission set up a European Profit-sharing Research
Institute. It would in particular be responsible for measuring
the progress made, for ensuring the fair enforcement of the PEPPER II proposals,
making recommendations to the Commission, and enabling the different players,
economic and social "partners" to meet with a positive attitude.
This institute would be a meeting place for the
four parties involved: trade union representatives, employers' organisations,
the European Commission and the Employee Shareholder Associations and
organisations grouped within EAES.
From
now on, dialogue, reflection, and decision must take this reality into account:
Employee and Pensioner Shareholder Associations are now on the same footing as
the Employers and the trade unions.
- we have
proposed to the European Commission, in particular the DG V that the EAES
experts should take part in the working groups created
by the different directors-general of the European Commission. This will enable
us to participate in a decisive manner in drawing up the proposals which will
be made in a green or white paper resulting in recommendations or directives.
Let us
cite as an example the DAVIGNON commission, working groups for the
"fostering of effective dialogue at community level", working groups
for the convention of organised non-trading companies, committees for
sector-based dialogue, consultative committees...
-
social dialogue on a European level has already
made notable progress and the social chapter integrated in the body of Treaty
of AMSTERDAM gives considerable powers and responsibilities to the "social
partners". EAES wishes to be part of it.
w 2nd Goal
:
TO EXPAND in all the countries of
the European Union, and PROVIDE THEM
WITHTHE KNOW-HOW of the long-standing associations.
- TO EXCHANGE
EXPERIENCE IN ORDER TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE RESOURCES OF EACH COUNTRY, and
also local characteristics, institutional constraints, mentalities and
individual needs.
-
TO
SET UP A CENTRE FOR EXCHANGING INFORMATION ON LEGISLATION AND MODES FOR
ENFORCEMENT OF FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION AND PARTICIPATION IN DECISIONS.
For us, profit-sharing is the answer to
"social" Europe.
EAES has
the support of the European Commission (to be precise, the support of the DG V)
and of the European Parliament (Mme Hermange, reporter of the PEPPER II report
and vice-president of the Social Affairs Commission).
w3rd Goal :
TO DEVELOP EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP IN EUROPEAN COMPANIES,
in particular, when companies are privatised and to create Employee Shareholder
Associations, first of all in the 15 countries of the European Union and
secondly in the countries of Eastern Europe who are likely to joint the
European Union within the next 4 to 5 years.
Special attention should be given to the
development of profit-sharing schemes and Employee Share Ownership in small and
medium-sized cross-border companies whose development will be facilitated by
the future statutes of Private European Companies.
As President
of EAES, I am convinced that in working to achieve these 3 goals, EAES will
actively contribute to the construction of a social Europe, to changing
mentalities, to harmonising skills, to integrating multi-cultural teams in
companies, to creating jobs, to restoring the pre-eminence of the human factor
over the economic and financial factors in the minds of company heads,
Governments and shareholders.
n EAES HAS SET ITSELF 2 PRIORITY
MISSIONS FOR THE YEAR 2000
1.
to select in each country of the European
Union experts in Employee Share Ownership, in financial and institutional
profit-sharing at company level (multinational but also small and medium-sized
companies).
-
and
propose that these
expert-members of EAES join the working groups organised by the European
Commission with a view to fostering effective dialogue at community level and
community legislation in order to encourage the development of Employee Share
Ownership and Profit-sharing.
2. to
conceive and carry
out a training programme with the financial aid of companies, organisation,
local communities which support EAES. This programme will be aimed at Human
Resources Managers of companies, those responsible for Employee Shareholder
Associations or of ESOPs or associations based on other legal formats, those
responsible for supervisory boards of company savings schemes, employee
representatives on company Boards of Directors.
Company
Directors are in favour of the EAES goals, they are ready to help it fulfil its
mission as they consider EAES to be :
· an
additional means of communication with the European Authorities,
· a
means of federating European personnel in different subsidiaries of large
companies whose social foundation will in the future no longer be national but
European,
· a
means of strengthening Share Ownership within companies as well as a factor of
motivation, and a means of self-defence for employees,
Company Directors will support us on condition that
we do not deviate from these goals, or fall into the trap of corporatism or set
up an inter-union association, or give in to mercenary temptation.
This is
because our organisation aims to foster new relationships within companies
based on economic and financial considerations, giving priority to the human
factor, and not on the class struggle as in the past.
In
conclusion, I am convinced that the development of Employee Share Ownership and
Profit-sharing will have a great impact on the economies of all the countries
of Europe, on the success of the Euro and that it will serve to mitigate the
adverse effects of the wave of mergers which are currently destabilising
European companies. It will also contribute to setting the social chapter of
Europe on a firm basis.
Thank you for your attention.