RESOLUTION B3-1527 and 1566/92

Resolution on the plan to close coalmines in the United Kingdom and coal policy and energy strategy in the European Community

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the ECSC Treaty and, in particular, Articles 2, 3(c), (d), (e) and (g), 5, first indent, 46, 55, 56, 58 and 72 thereof,

- having regard to its resolution of 11 March 1992 on coal and the internal energy market, on which the Commission has not taken any genuine action,

A. having regard to the plan to close 31 coalmines in the United Kingdom which, if implemented, would result in the loss of 30 000 jobs and, subsequently, of tens of thousands of jobs connected with the coal sector,

B. mindful of the threats of closures and job losses in the mining industry throughout Europe and particularly in France,

C. whereas a policy deliberately designed to abandon Community coal, the only abundant source of fossil fuel in Europe, on short-term economic grounds, would jeopardize long-term security of supply, this being strategically undesirable,

1. Urges the Commission to use its powers and influence to ensure that the plan to close 31 coalmines in the UK is abandoned;

2. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to initiate without delay serious deliberations and wide-ranging consultation at Community and national level between the producers, users, worker representatives and local councillors concerned on the coal policy to be pursued in the European Community, bearing in mind the variations in the way energy resources are distributed in the Member States;

3. Calls on the Commission to propose, as a matter of urgency, parallel with this process, a global energy strategy that takes account of the total cost in the long term of the resources used, seen from an economic, social and environmental perspective and from the perspective of security of supplies;

4. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to propose and take measures:

(a) to ensure the viability of the Community coal industry,

(b) where necessary, to arrange for the retraining of miners and the preservation of their social security rights, including those of pensioners and miners' widows, using all existing Community and national instruments and, where appropriate, creating new ones;

(c) to step up and support research in clean technologies (gasification, combined cycle, etc.) and the industrial application thereof, and uses for coal other than a source of energy;

(d) to step up Community support for the coal industry by increasing the endowment of the RECHAR 2 programme under the Structural Funds with effect from 1 January 1994,

(e) to consider from the competition policy point of view the contractual relations between regional electricity companies and new gas-fired power stations and all hidden or known aids for the nuclear and gas industries;

5. Calls on the Commission to set up immediately an in-depth investigation into complaints of the dumping of coal by third countries and to publish the findings thereof;

6. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.