With the aim of stimulating economic growth and creating more jobs in the European Union, this Regulation establishes the EGF to enable the Community to provide support for workers made redundant as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation where these redundancies have a significant adverse impact on the regional or local economy.
Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on establishing the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund
Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on establishing the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular the third paragraph of Article 159 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee(1),
Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions(2),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(3),
Whereas:
Notwithstanding the positive effects of globalisation on growth, jobs and prosperity and the need to enhance European competitiveness further through structural change, globalisation may also have negative consequences for the most vulnerable and least qualified workers in some sectors. It is therefore opportune to establish a European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (the EGF), accessible to all Member States, through which the Community could show its solidarity towards workers affected by redundancies resulting from changes in world trade patterns.
It is necessary to preserve European values and to promote the development of fair external trade. The negative effects of globalisation should be tackled in the first instance by a long term, sustainable Community strategy for trade policy aimed at high social and ecological standards. The assistance provided by the EGF should be dynamic and capable of adapting to circumstances in the market that are constantly changing and often unforeseen.
The EGF should provide specific, one-off support to facilitate the re-integration into employment of workers in areas, sectors, territories, or labour market regions suffering the shock of serious economic disruption. The EGF should promote entrepreneurship, for example through micro-credits or by setting up cooperative projects.
Actions under this Regulation should be defined according to strict intervention criteria relating to the scale of economic dislocation and its impact on a given sector or geographical area, to ensure that the financial contribution from the EGF is concentrated on workers in the most seriously affected regions and economic sectors of the Community. Such dislocation is not necessarily concentrated within a single Member State. In such exceptional circumstances, Member States may therefore submit joint requests for assistance from the EGF.
The activities of the EGF should be coherent and compatible with the other Community policies and comply with its acquis, especially the interventions of the Structural Funds, while making a genuine contribution to the Community's social policies.
Point 28 of the Interinstitutional Agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission of 17 May 2006 on budgetary discipline and sound financial management(4) (Interinstitutional Agreement) determines the budgetary framework of the EGF.
A specific action funded under this Regulation should not receive financial assistance from other Community financial instruments. Coordination with existing or planned modernisation and restructuring measures in the framework of regional development is necessary however, although such coordination should not result in the creation of parallel or additional management structures for actions funded by the EGF.
To facilitate the implementation of this Regulation, expenditure should be eligible from the date on which a Member State begins to provide personalised services to the affected workers. Reflecting the need for a concentrated response aiming specifically at re integration into employment, a deadline should be set for the use of the financial contribution from the EGF.
The Member States should remain responsible for the implementation of the financial contribution and for the management and control of the actions supported by Community financing, in accordance with Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1605/2002 of 25 June 2002 on the Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the European Communities(5) (the Financial Regulation). The Member States should justify the use made of the financial contribution received from the EGF.
The European Monitoring Centre on Change may assist the Commission and the Member State concerned with qualitative and quantitative analyses in order to help in the evaluation of an application for EGF funds.
Since the objectives of this Regulation cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore, by reason of their scale and effects, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.
As the period of implementation of the EGF is linked to the duration of the financial framework from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013, support should be available to workers affected by trade-related redundancies from 1 January 2007,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1 Subject-matter and scope
1.
The period of implementation of the EGF shall be linked to the financial framework, from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2013.
1a.
By way of derogation from paragraph 1, the EGF shall also provide support to workers made redundant as a direct result of the global financial and economic crisis, provided applications comply with the criteria set out in Article 2(a), (b) or (c). Member States applying for an EGF contribution under this derogation shall establish a direct and demonstrable link between the redundancies and the financial and economic crisis.
This derogation shall apply to all applications submitted before 31 December 2011.
2.
This Regulation lays down rules regarding the operation of the EGF in order to facilitate re-integration into employment of workers affected by trade-related redundancies.
Article 2 Intervention criteria
A financial contribution from the EGF shall be provided where major structural changes in world trade patterns lead to serious economic disruption, in particular a substantial increase of imports into the European Union, the rapid decline of the EU market share in a given sector or a delocalisation to third countries, which results in:
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at least 500 redundancies over a period of four months in an enterprise in a Member State, including workers made redundant in its suppliers or downstream producers, or
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at least 500 redundancies over a period of nine months, particularly in small or medium-sized enterprises, in a NACE 2 division in one region or two contiguous regions at NUTS II level.
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In small labour markets or in exceptional circumstances, where duly substantiated by the Member State concerned, an application for a contribution from the EGF may be considered admissible even if the intervention criteria laid down in points (a) or (b) are not entirely met, when redundancies have a serious impact on employment and the local economy. The Member State shall specify that its application does not entirely meet the intervention criteria set out in points (a) or (b). The aggregated amount of contributions in exceptional circumstances may not exceed 15 % of the annual maximum amount of the EGF.
For the purposes of calculating the number of redundancies provided for in points (a), (b) and (c) above, a redundancy shall be counted from:
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the date of the employer's individual notice to lay off or to terminate the contract of employment of the worker,
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the date of the de facto termination of the contract of employment before its expiry, or,
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the date on which the employer, in conformity with the provisions of Article 3(1), of Council Directive 98/59/EC of 20 July 1998 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to collective redundancies(6), notifies the competent public authority in writing of the projected collective redundancies; in this case, the applicant Member State(s) shall provide the Commission with additional information on the actual number of redundancies effected according to points (a), (b) or (c) above, and the estimated costs of the coordinated package of personalised services, prior to the completion of the assessment provided for in Article 10 of this Regulation.
For each enterprise in question the Member State(s) shall specify in the application how the redundancies are being counted.
Article 3 Eligible actions
A financial contribution from the EGF may be made for active labour market measures that form part of a coordinated package of personalised services designed to re-integrate redundant workers into the labour market, including:
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for job-search assistance, occupational guidance, tailor-made training and re-training, including information and communication technology skills and certification of acquired experience, as well as for outplacement assistance and entrepreneurship promotion or aid for self-employment;
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for special time-limited measures, such as job-search allowances, mobility allowances or allowances to individuals participating in lifelong learning and training activities; and
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for measures to stimulate in particular disadvantaged or older workers, to remain in or return to the labour market.
The EGF shall not finance passive social protection measures.
On the initiative of the Member State concerned, the EGF may finance the preparatory, management, information and publicity, and control activities for its implementation.
Article 3a Eligible persons
Member States can provide personalised services co-financed by the EGF to affected workers, who may include:
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workers made redundant within the period provided for in Article 2(a), 2(b) or 2(c), and
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workers made redundant before or after the period provided for in Articles 2(a) or 2(c), in cases where an application under the latter derogates from the criteria set out in Article 2(a), provided that the redundancies occurred after the general announcement of the projected redundancies and a clear causal link can be established with the event which triggered the redundancies during the reference period.