Mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund: redundancies in specialised construction activities in Ireland

The European Parliament adopted by 529 votes to 73, with 19 abstentions, a resolution on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for an amount of EUR 21 664 148 in commitment and payment appropriations in respect of redundancies in specialised constructions activities in Ireland.

Parliament recalls that the European 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 Ireland has requested assistance in respect of a case concerning 3 382 redundancies, of which 2 228 have been targeted for assistance, in 1 560 enterprises operating in the NACE Revision 2 Division 43 (‘Specialised construction activities’) in the NUTS II regions of Border, Midlands and Western (IE01) and Southern and Eastern (IE02) in Ireland, 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 the Parliament's request for accelerating the release of grants. It hopes that further improvements in the procedure will be reached in the framework of the upcoming reviews of the EGF.

Parliament recalls 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.

At the same time, Parliament recalls that 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. It states that the amount of payment appropriations initially entered on the EGF budget line 04 0501 were fully consumed with the nineteenth application. However, in order to mobilise the EGF for this case, payments appropriations will be transferred from a budget line dedicated to the "Completion of the European Social Fund (ESF) – Objective 1 (2000 to 2006).