Mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund: redundancies in the metal sector in Austria

The European Parliament adopted by 558 votes to 64, with 23 abstentions, a resolution on the proposal for a decision to mobilise the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for an amount of EUR 8 284 908 in commitment and payment appropriations in order to assist Austria in respect of redundancies in the metal sector.

The European Parliament recalls that the Union has set up the appropriate legislative and budgetary instruments to provide additional support to workers who are suffering from the consequences of major structural changes in world trade patterns and to assist their reintegration into the labour market. Given that Austria has requested assistance in respect of cases concerning 1 180 redundancies (of which 356 targeted for assistance) in 54 enterprises operating in the NACE Revision 2 Division 24 ('Manufacture of basic metals') in the NUTS II regions of Steiermark (Styria, AT 22) and Niederösterreich (Lower Austria, AT 12) in Austria, Parliament requests the institutions involved to make the necessary efforts to accelerate the mobilisation of the EGF for the requested amount.

It appreciates, in this sense, the improved procedure put in place by the Commission, following Parliament's request for accelerating the release of grants. It hopes that further improvements in the procedure will be made within the framework of the upcoming reviews of the EGF.

Parliament stresses the institutions’ commitment to ensuring a smooth and rapid procedure for the adoption of the decisions on the mobilisation of the EGF, providing one-off, time-limited individual support geared to helping workers who have suffered redundancies as a result of globalisation and the financial and economic crisis.

It also recalls that:

• assistance from the EGF must not replace actions which are the responsibility of companies by virtue of national law or collective agreements, nor measures restructuring companies or sectors;
• the information provided on the coordinated package of personalised services to be funded from the EGF includes information on the complementarity with actions funded by the Structural Funds.

Moreover, Parliament calls for an evaluation on the long-term integration of these workers into the labour market as a direct result of the EGF-funded measures as well as comparative evaluation on the complementarity with actions funded by the Structural Funds.

At the same time, Parliament welcomes the fact that, following repeated requests from the Parliament, for the first time the 2011 budget shows payment appropriations of EUR 47 608 950 on the EGF budget line 04 05 01. The EGF was created as a separate specific instrument with its own objectives and deadlines and that therefore deserves a dedicated allocation, superseding transfers from other budget lines, as done in the past, which could be detrimental to the achievement of the various policies objectives.