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(Translation of the speech originally held in Luxembourg language)
President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
For a Prime Minister there are speeches which pose relatively few problems. There are those which only concern ourselves and which are intended to provide responses to our most private sensitivities and to prepare for their being put into political practice. Of course such speeches are not always free of difficulties, but they relate to ourselves only, and so we alone are concerned. In those cases, we manage the situation perfectly well on the majority of occasions.
And then there are speeches which are more complex, because they relate to subjects not only of concern to ourselves. Today I must, and indeed I wish to speak to you on an extremely complex matter, since it concerns both our most private sensitivities and those of third parties.
The question is the takeover bid by Mittal for Arcelor. I know that in our country people are awaiting a clear position to be taken. And I also know that the financial markets, analysts and foreign observers are awaiting a speech of a thousand nuances, a so-called intelligent speech, which fits into the real globalised landscape.
I have opted for a clear speech. That does not mean to say that my approach follows an exclusively short-term logic, ignoring medium-term risks. Indeed to the contrary, I am perfectly well aware of the medium to long-term risks, perhaps better aware than some of those who will be speaking after me or who will be putting pen to paper tomorrow.
However, in life, and this applies to private life and to that of the State, we can only make a single speech, a speech which must take all factors into consideration, both the chances and the opportunities as well as the risks. We must look at the chances, which are clearly presented, and we must consider the risks we feel, without ignoring them. However, a stroll through the world of risks should not make us forget the chances and the opportunities which we see clearly.
To put it clearly, the Luxembourg government is not in favour of the hostile takeover bid by Mittal for Arcelor.
We do not want it because we do not understand it. And we do not want it because, to this day, even after an amiable meeting with Mr Mittal, who is a capable and a respectable man, we have received no plausible, rational or coherent explanation. And it is for this reason that we are convinced that the clear European industrial plan of Arcelor, which we know and which we have contributed to elaborating both as a country and as the European Union, responds better to our interests than the bid by Mittal, which is characterised in our eyes by the absence of any clear Luxembourg or European concept.
This takeover bid is not coherent and the method chosen is not compatible with the manner in which we, Luxembourg and Europeans, would like, should and must give a form to globalisation.
A few years ago, when we worked together on the merger which finally gave birth to Arcelor, we were dealing with a common plan by Arbed, our Luxembourg steel company, Aceralia, a Spanish steel company, and Usinor, a European steel company. The three companies consulted us, myself and the then Minister for the Economy, Mr Grethen, presenting and explaining their plans in a plausible manner. Those plans were compatible with what was important for Luxembourg and what was necessary for Europe. At the beginning, we were reticent, but little by little, a concept was put in place, with both a Luxembourg and a European dimension, which finally convinced us.
The difference between what happened then, with the Arcelor merger and what we are experiencing today, is considerable. It is not a trivial difference, but indeed a dramatic difference between the common plan of three European companies searching for a European solution, and a plan which is sought to be implemented, without prior consultation with the company it seeks to take over, by one person, one family, which is the principal shareholder of this company.
If, at the time, we had not achieved this merger of Arbed, Usinor and Aceralia, Arbed would today be a simple prey. Now, thanks to that merger having taken place, Arbed is now not a prey at all. However, as for the method chosen in this particular case, it is disapproved by the Luxembourg government.
In our eyes, the proposal by Mittal is marked by a total absence of any industrial concept. And that impression has not changed after the meeting I had this morning with Mr Mittal in the presence of Ministers Krecké and Frieden. We are of the opinion that in order to build something together, to cooperate in a constructive manner, agreement must first of all be reached with those with whom we wish to implement that common plan and with whom we wish to advance in the same direction.
In this Mittal concept, in which we do not even see a suggestion of any concrete plan, we find none of the elements important for the Luxembourg government and for the European Union as a whole. As for governance, we observe notable differences between the approach adopted by Mittal thus far and the approach by Luxembourg which, until now, has been applied everywhere Arcelor has been active since the merger. It is a governance model that consists, out of clear commercial interests, of seeking social dialogue with steel industry employees and making efforts towards dialogue at a micro and macro-economic level with the governments and other territorial organisations concerned.
We have often had lively discussions with Arcelor, as we also had with the steel unions at Arbed and then at Arcelor, and Arcelor, like Arbed, understood from the very beginning that the history of the steel industry in Luxembourg was different from that of other countries in Europe and certainly the rest of the world. It was an intimate relationship, which is and was not only felt by those who worked in the steel industry but also inspired an entire nation. It is a country which, to speak familiarly, had to spend quite a lot of money to give the Luxembourg steel industry a chance of survival, to achieve concrete results at a time when some, in Luxembourg and abroad, no longer believed in the future of the Luxembourg steel industry.
Mr Mittal, who is an able man, an intelligent man, undoubtedly having certain sensitivities, could certainly learn all this. However, it is much easier for us to work with someone who has lived through it all, who has felt its development, who has been involved in and who understands the extraordinary, sometimes irrational relationship which exists between the people of Luxembourg and their steel industry.
It is much easier for us to remain a strategic partner, not a partner guided by financial and stock market interests, but a strategic partner within a European company which can take pride in a clear industrial plan, rather than foundering, in a conceptual magma, a conceptual confusion we do not really understand on first, second or even on third sight.
The Luxembourg government is not interested in short-term financial results which might have a positive impact on the State budget. If, as some would like to see us do, we sold our Arcelor shares tomorrow or even this afternoon, we would make a profit of more than a billion euros. You, specialists in the Luxembourg budget, know that such a sum is exactly double the total State budget result over two years. But that is not what we want to do. We do not want a quick solution to our short-term budget problems by taking measures dictated by speculative logic, but we want to remain a strategic partner within a European company with a European social dimension, in a European environment and within the context of a European concept for governance, with its headquarters in Luxembourg.
The principle which must determine government action is not that of rapid profit, but that of the strategic orientation of the presence of Luxembourg as a participant in the shareholder structure of a European company.
It is the future of Luxembourg which is at stake, and it is the future of Europe which is at stake. Those two factors are of equal importance. What matters for this country, is not to alter the way in which we organise the process of restructuring the European steel industry, and at the same time to ensure that, with its headquarters in Luxembourg and from its headquarters in Luxembourg, a European steel champion can develop its activities both in Europe and in the rest of the world. And it is for that reason that, in the days to come, just as we have already done in days past, we will do all that is possible, in our talks with our neighbouring colleagues, to ensure the philosophy of the Lisbon strategy, which pervades the entire European process, is also respected in the present case when it comes to the European steel industry.
This is why, today and tomorrow, I am going to Paris and to Brussels, accompanied by the Minister for the Economy, Jeannot Krecké, who with Minister Luc Frieden has faced the challenges of the first days following the launch of the takeover bid in such an exemplary manner, to have discussions, although I have had them when I was in Africa, with the President of France and Belgian Prime Minister, with whom I have also had two telephone conversations when I was in the Mali desert, just as with the French Prime Minister and the French Minster for Finance and the Economy, the Flemish and Walloon Ministers-President and the President of the European Commission.
With the best will in the world, Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot promise you today, at a time when the Luxembourg and European steel industry finds itself faced by such an extraordinary challenge, that we can have all of our interests respected up until the very end.
But I am determined, just as the government is determined, to do everything possible to ensure that we preserve all that for which we have worked, that in which we believe, that which is Luxembourg and European, by deploying all means necessary to reject this hostile bid. I cannot promise you we will succeed, but what I can promise is that we will do everything to preserve the place of Luxembourg in the European steel industry, in order to remain a strategic partner capable of shaping its future.
If we want to remain what we are, which is not the same as saying we want to keep what we have, we must keep a position in the European steel industry landscape which enables us, from Luxembourg, to set those decisive elements in matters of corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, preservation of research activities on our sites and on other sites which today belong to Arcelor, as well as all the elements we consider important.
President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The hostile bid by Mittal for Arcelor is of great concern to us. If you want to build something together, construct in common, you should not, of course, build against others but together with others.
The Luxembourg government, a strategic partner of Arcelor and whishing to remain a strategic partner, not a financial one, of this big champion of the steel industry, is not informed and has not been informed by Mittal Steel of any industrial concept that would seem viable in our eyes.
As a consequence, we respond with hostility to this hostile bid, believing that the European steel industry needs European champions that become and remain real world leaders in the field of steel industry. It is therefore not the intention of the Luxembourg government, in the absence of any convincing industrial concept, both national and European, to react positively and amiably to the bid made by Mittal for Arcelor.
In this country we have fought, both Luxembourg in its entirety and the modest Luxembourg people, by using the classic means of national politics, meaning the increase of the fiscal burden carried by everyone, to achieve that the Luxembourg steel industry remains a reality in this country.
After numerous turns and numerous challenges, we have become a strategic partner of the number one European steel industry group, which is the creation of joining the potentials of a French group, a Luxembourg group and a Spanish group. We do not have in mind rapid lucre, or easily earned money. We would like to remain the Luxembourg strategic partner well rooted in the European steel industry as a whole. As a consequence, we say No to the hostile takeover bid by Mittal for Arcelor. We will of course stay in contact with those in charge at Mittal, whom we admire for what they have achieved, whom we respect for what they are, but in return we would like to be respected in our entirety as well.
Thank you.