Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (2014-2020)

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) was initially established for the duration of the programming period 2007–2013 by Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006 to provide the Union with an instrument to demonstrate solidarity with, and give support to, workers made redundant as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns caused by globalisation where these redundancies have a significant adverse impact on the regional or local economy.

By co-funding active labour market policy measures, the EGF aims to facilitate the re-integration of workers in areas, sectors, territories or labour markets suffering the shock of serious economic disruption.

In the light of the scale and the speed of development of the financial and economic crisis in 2008, the Commission, in its European Economic Recovery Plan, envisaged the revision of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006. Apart from some permanent changes based on the first years of EGF implementation, the main aim of this revision was to extend from 1 May 2009 until 30 December 2011 the scope of the EGF to enable it to demonstrate Union solidarity and provide support for workers made redundant as a direct consequence of the financial and economic crisis and to increase the co-funding rate from 50 to 65%, thus reducing the burden for Member States.

Taking into account the current economic situation and the need for fiscal consolidation the Commission has proposed that the temporary crisis derogation be extended until 31 December 2013, i.e. the end of the implementation period of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006.

The prime objective of this proposal is to ensure that the EGF continues to operate in the next programming period in line with the basic principles laid down for the MFF 2014-2020, which also extended the scope of the EGF to include farmers.

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)608: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:608:FIN

European Commission: SEC(2011)1133: Ex-ante evaluation http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=SEC:2011:1133:FIN:EN:PDF

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