Text tabled : A7-0272/2010

  Diogo Feio (PPE), in writing. – (PT) When I think about the crisis that has hit this sector, I remember hearing the former prime minister of Spain, José María Aznar, recounting how the former president of the United States of America, George W Bush, was astonished to learn that the foremost Spanish export was not an agricultural product, but cars. This was a positive sign that the old stereotypes about the economies of southwest Europe were ceasing to apply.

Unfortunately, the effort to modernise Spanish industry, undertaken particularly by the government of the People’s Party, has experienced a major setback with this global crisis. The fall in the demand for cars in the EU is very serious, and production in the second quarter of 2009 decreased by almost 40%, a situation which threatens to jeopardise even more jobs, not only in Spain, but throughout the EU.

I view this setback with concern, and I hope that the Spanish economy is able to respond adequately to the crisis, with this fund as only part of that response.