SUMMARY of the experiences of the international  conference held at Balatongyörök

The fundamental objective of the conference was to create, through co-operation between the social partners, a vision-shaping conference document for the extracting industry, and within that for the energy sector helping restructuring of the coal-mining sector in general and specifically in Bulgaria and Rumania facing the accession to the European Union. This was the number-one motivating factor to organise this conference.

It became absolutely clear, that the situation has become mature by now for the European Union to play a more important role than before in the creation of the European energy policy and in the area of assuring energy safety. This is also connected with the fact that since 2004 the European energy policy seems to undergo a process of change, representing a greater need to support industrial development, but the improvement of operational conditions in the extracting industry is one of the preconditions for that. If we wish to achieve that the European Union gives employment opportunities in the industrial sector, and that modern, competitive products are produced, the new industrial policy, connected with the new energy policy shall also define certain employment aspects.
The Spanish, the French and the two Hungarian colleagues, by presenting the process of transformation – the French colleagues have made it clear that if they had had a better view of the price increase of the carbohydrates they would definitely not have streamlined coal mining – indicated for us that a new way of thinking shall have to be implemented in the energy policies of Europe and the nation states.

Efficiency of both the energy use and the production will also have to be improved. A fundamental element of this process will be the increase in the efficiency of power plants and the utilisation of coal available in large quantities in Europe energy production.
The use of renewable energy shall be dealt with in the function of all the risks involved.

The finding of the Conference according to which Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic are countries of extraction industry where there are extensive mining capacities even today was also very important. In Poland, production is being concentrated to a great extent, having a clear and natural effect also on the number of employees in coal mining. However, Europe is in need of the high-quality coal coming from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic for the purpose of safe energy supply. This way, dependence from carbohydrates can be minimised and a more secure vision about the future can be assured for those working in the respective sector.

Technologies of the future shall also be used to shape the future, and research and development will play an important role in it. Germany takes a leading position in research and development that focuses on – for mutual interests and benefits – environmental-friendly use, and on assuring environment-friendly conditions. Should the different research and development processes proceed in the direction of reducing the carbon dioxide emissions and should the respective quotas be also reduced, the use of European coal in the energy sector will again have an important role (together with the clean coal technologies) resulting in the increased number of jobs and in the development and prosperity of certain mining regions and areas through the expansion of the processing, supply and service sectors.

With respect to the European trends, we got an insight and an overview of the most important messages of the „Green Paper” and of the energy policy of the EMCEF. The above two documents are in harmony with each other, and provide opportunities also for the future. It is especially true, because the „Green Paper” will be converted into „White Paper”, meaning that the requirements worded in the latter Paper will be mandatory for the nation states.

According to the conclusions of the Conference, the appearance of the European perspective in the extracting industry is of great significance and may contribute to the expansion of employment opportunities in Europe. In this respect, the social partners were in agreement and had a consensus. Both the social partners agreed with and supported the continuation of the necessary developments and modernisation processes affecting the future and they also agreed in stating that co-operation between the employers and the employees and the system of collective agreements shall be given an important role in maintaining the European social model. We were delighted to see that our Bulgarian colleagues have succeeded to elaborate a strategy of their own. This strategy contains the introduction of new technologies in the Bulgarian mining industry. In addition to this they also informed us about their decision not to support the loss-making jobs and being in favour, in these cases, of re-structuring, should the process of re-structuring have the necessary social background. In this topic, the representatives of the countries where re-structuring has already taken place and of those where this process is currently going on (the Czech Republic, Poland) and the people present from Bulgaria which will join the European Union next year had an interesting and fruitful exchange of information. The respective ideas can be found in the manual. We should also mention that there are optimum conditions to keep the contacts in the future.

The participants of the Conference unanimously agreed in saying that no successful re-structuring can be executed without providing the necessary background for the human policy measures. At this point, training being one of the most important functions came to the forefront. However, training shall be connected with job creation and a series of social measures. However, the following play a fundamental role in this process: offering the possibility for early retirement for those working underground, creating funds for re-start, and social benefits. The important thing is that no single person shall get into a desperate situation as a result of re-structuring in the mining sector, because the respective effects are many-fold and the radiating negative consequences exert negative influence on the life of people living in the area in question.

It is of utmost importance that the best practises presented by the participants of the Conference both from the employers’ and the employees’ side shall be included in the manual as best practises. These can then be utilised in other countries facing accession to the European Union (for example: in the Balkan states).

Another important message of the Conference was that the European industrial-policy programme can, in no way, be successful without the extracting industrial sectors, because if the raw materials have to be transported from long distances, the costs of production will increase, thus there will be a more limited playground for competitiveness. Some of the extracted raw materials can, anyway be purchased only with great difficulties from countries outside of the European Union due to their large quantity. We should not increase the energy-defencelessness of the European Union further (On the contrary: We should put an end to it!). However, a well thought over and conscious energy-mix is needed, because only this way can we offer a vision and jobs protected with proper collective agreements for the employees of the industrial sector.
The Conference consented to this.