The Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, and the Secretary of State for Industry, Rebeca Torró, have held a new meeting today, this time by videoconference, with the international leadership of the BSH Group. The telematic meeting was also attended by the president of the Government of Navarre, María Chivite, as well as the councillors of Social Rights, Economy and Employment, Carmen Maeztu, and the Minister of Industry, Mikel Irujo.
Today’s meeting is the fourth that Minister Hereu holds with BSH, with the aim of saving the production and maintaining the employment of the Navarre plant of Esquíroz. Both the ministry and the Foral Government have been working together on this goal since BSH announced its intention to close this plant.
Hereu has insisted today, as it did at the last meeting held in Barcelona on May 9, on the need to maintain the activity and employment of the plant while materializing an industrial solution that gives the installation a future.
For this reason, the minister has called on the management of BSH to provide the negotiating process with greater temporary flexibility, so that future investors interested in the Esquíroz plant, some of whom have already begun the process of visits to the factory, can carefully evaluate a possible purchase operation.
In this regard, there is a commitment on the part of the Ministry of Industry and Tourism to continue holding regular meetings with the aim of redoubling efforts so that an industrial alternative is materialized for the Esquiroz factory.
At a time when the active industrial policy and industrial capacities of the country are being strengthened, the Ministry of Industry and Tourism considers that BSH should not be in a hurry to close its plant in Navarre, especially when the closure responds to strategic reasons of the company, and not to economic reasons.
On the part of BSH, Jörg Ulrich, Global Director of Production; Christian Prenzel, Director of the company in Europe; Maurizio Bernardi, Director of the Economic Area, as well as the CEO of BSH in Spain, Jose Juste, participated in the meeting.