Europees Parlement breidt Europees Fonds voor Aanpassing aan de Globalisering uit (en)

Parliament adopted a first -reading agreement with Council to broaden temporarily the scope of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. The aim of the agreement adopted by the European Parliament with 538 votes in favour, 35 against and 37 abstentions - rapporteur Gabriele Stauner (EPP-ED, DE) - is to provide support to workers made redundant as a direct result of the global financial and economic crisis.

Financial and economic crisis link

Member States applying for an EGF contribution should therefore establish a "direct and demonstrable" link between the redundancies and the financial and economic crisis. The derogation applies to all application receives from 1 May 2009 and submitted before 31 December 2011".

In addition, according to the report, "the main problem affecting the Fund has been that the stringent intervention criteria that have prevented its full potential from being exploited, so that over the period to mid-2008 only 15 000 workers had received assistance averaging €4500". For that reason, the modified proposed regulation recommends the number of redundancies be lowered to 500 instead of 1000 before the EGF can be triggered.

The amount of co-financing of the EGF may not exceed 50% but for applications submitted before 31 December 2011, the amount may not exceed 65%.

Background

The purpose of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) is to provide effective support for workers made redundant as a result of globalisation. The Fund's maximum annual budget is €500 million and is used to support active labour market measures, e.g. in the form of training grants and mobility allowances.