Brussels, 10/09/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 9 September, the European Commission adopted its third annual report on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). The 2009 report shows that member states submitted six times more applications for EGF support for workers dismissed as a result of globalisation and the economic crisis. The EU granted €52.3 million from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) in 2009 to help some 11,000 dismissed workers in eight countries. The report also showed that it still takes too long for the aid to get to those who need it most. EU Employment Commissioner László Andor said that he hoped to half the time taken. In this, he has been supported by the European Parliament which, in Strasbourg on Tuesday 7 September, adopted the report by Miguel Portas (GUE/NGL, Portugal) on the funding and functioning of the EGF, Andor's spokeswoman Cristina Arigho pointed out speaking to the press.
The main conclusions of the 2009 report. (1) In 2009, 13 member states submitted 30 applications, six times more than in 2008, requesting a total of €166,581,220 from the EGF to help 29,021 workers made redundant in 17 industrial sectors. (2) The European Parliament and minsters from the 27 member states (the Budgetary Authority) must approve each application. In 2009, they took ten decisions to deploy the EGF. The ten contributions granted targeted 10,938 workers who had been dismissed in eight member states (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden), with a total of €52,349,047 from the Fund. The EGF contributions were granted to co-finance active labour market policy measures organised in the member states (job-search assistance, training and re-training, help towards greater mobility, as well as support for business creation).
The report also describes the outcome of nine EGF contributions granted in previous years and their role in helping the workers to find new jobs. The Commission has received a total of nine final reports on the implementation of EGF contributions granted. These show that, at the end of the EGF support period, 3,717 dismissed workers in the automotive, textiles and mobile phone sectors had found new jobs (40.1 % of those receiving support).
This rate was, unsurprisingly, heavily influenced by the financial and economic crisis, the Commission says in a press release, but member states reported that the EGF contributions had allowed them to increase their assistance for these workers and to extend the duration of support beyond what would have been possible without the EGF contribution, increasing their chances of finding work in the future. (G.B./transl.rt)