The European Globalisation Fund aims to help workers reintegrate into the labour market after they have been made redundant as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns (e.g: as a consequence of the global financial and economic crisis). For example, it supported Belgian workers after the General Motors Antwerp plant closed-down.
The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) enables the Europan Union to demonstrate solidarity at Union level and to provide support to workers made redundant as a consequence of trade globalisation, as a result of an unexpected crisis or as a consequence of trade agreements impacting upon the agricultural sector.
The EGF is one of the special instruments not included in the MFF.
Objectives
The aim of the EGF is to contribute to economic growth and employment in the Union by enabling the Union to show solidarity towards workers made redundant as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation, trade agreements affecting agriculture, or an unexpected crisis, and to provide financial support for their rapid reintegration into employment, or for changing or adjusting their agricultural activities. Actions benefiting from financial contributions by the Fund shall aim to ensure that a minimum of 50 % of workers participating in these actions find stable employment within a year from the date of application
The EU structural funds, in particular the European Social Fund (ESF), take a more strategic, long-term perspective – anticipating and managing change through activities such as life-long learning.
By contrast, the EGF provides one-off, time-limited individual support geared to helping workers who have suffered redundancy as a result of globalisation
2014-2020
The Member State shall submit a complete application to the Commission within a period of 12 weeks from the date on which the criteria set in Article 4(1) or (2) are met or, where applicable, before the deadline set by the Commission in accordance with Article 4(3). In exceptional and duly justified circumstances the application may be supplemented with additional information by the applicant Member State within six months from the date of application, following which the Commission shall assess the application on the basis of the available information. The Commission
shall complete its assessment of the application within twelve weeks of the date of receipt of a complete application or (in the case of an incomplete application) six months after the date of the initial application, whichever is the earlier.
The application shall include the following information:
(a) a reasoned analysis of the link between the redundancies and the major
structural changes in world trade patterns, or the serious disruption of the local, regional or national economy caused by an unexpected crisis, or the new market situation in the agricultural sector in the Member State and resulting from the effects of a trade agreement initialled by the European Union in accordance with Article XXIV of the GATT or a multilateral agreement initialled within the World Trade Organisation as per Article 2(c). This analysis shall be based on statistical and other information at the most appropriate level to demonstrate the fulfilment of the intervention criteria set out in Article 4;
(b) an assessment of the number of redundancies in accordance with Article 5, and an explanation of the events giving rise to those redundancies;
(c) the identification, where applicable, of the dismissing enterprises, suppliers or downstream producers, sectors, and the categories of targeted workers;
(d) the expected impact of the redundancies as regards the local, regional or national economy and employment;
(e) the estimated budget for each of the components of the coordinated package of personalised services in support of the targeted workers;
(f) the dates on which the personalised services to the affected workers and the activities to implement EGF, as set out in Article 7(1) and (3) respectively, were started or are planned to be started;
(g) the procedures followed for consulting the social partners or other relevant organisations as applicable;
(h) a statement of compliance of the requested EGF support with the procedural and material Union rules on state aid as well as a statement that the personalised services do not replace measures that are the responsibility of companies by virtue of national law or collective agreements;
(i) the sources of national co-funding; EN 19 EN
(j) if applicable, any further requirements which may have been laid down in the delegated act taken in accordance with Article 4(3).
Implementation
The Commission would designate agricultural sectors or products and, where relevant, regions as eligible for possible EGF support. Member States would have the possibility to submit applications for an EGF contribution, provided that they can prove that eligible sectors experience significant trade-related losses, that farmers operating in these sectors are affected and that they have identified and targeted the affected farmers.
In order to ensure that EGF support is available to workers independently of their contract of employment or employment relationship, the notion of 'workers' is extended to include not only workers with contracts of employment of indefinite duration, but also workers with fixed-term contracts, temporary agency workers and owner-managers of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and self-employed workers (including farmers).
As the access to EGF support is conditioned by the fact that the workers must have been made redundant, or for farmers that they are adjusting that part of their activity affected by the relevant trade agreement, the proposal contains specific provisions on how the redundancy should be counted for each worker.
Member States shall accredit bodies responsible for the proper management and control of the actions supported by the EGF.
Applications to the Fund are submitted by Members States. Individuals, representative organisations or companies affected by redundancies and wishing to benefit from the Fund should contact their national authorities. Detailed eligibility criteria for intervention are set out in the EGF Regulation and its amendment**. List of EGF contact persons for each country can be found at:http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=581&langId=en.
Eligible actions:
Providing one-off, time-limited individual support, such as:
The EGF will not fund social protection measures such as pensions or unemployment benefits. These are the responsibility of EU national governments.
A maximum annual budget of EUR 150 million for the period 2014-2020
Eligibility
The applicant Member State may provide personalised services co-financed by the EGF to affected workers, who may include:
Financial contributions to be provided to:
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Individual workers made redundant can benefit from EGF projects. Over the period 2014-2020 this can include the self-employed, temporary workers and fixed-term workers.