Following the letter from John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the European industrial federations on the subject of restructuring operations, the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso,replied that a European framework for restructuring would help to avoid protectionist reactions. The ETUC has for many years been defending the introduction of an instrument, at European level, to manage transitions and anticipation and it is willing to pursue the debate along those lines.