The European Union granted 52.3 million Euro from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) in 2009 to help some 11,000 workers dismissed in eight countries, according to a report adopted by the European Commission. The third annual report on the activities of the EGF shows a six-fold increase in applications from Member States for funding to support workers dismissed as a result of globalisation and the economic crisis.

In 2009, 13 Member States submitted 30 applications requesting a total of 166,581,220 Euro from the EGF in order to help 29,021 workers made redundant in 17 industrial sectors – a 700% increase on 2008. All but two applications were covered by the new rules established by the amended EGF Regulation which became applicable from 1 May 2009 and which has made it easier for Member States to apply and qualify for funding. The new rules should also further improve the efficiency of the Fund for the new cases, particularly through the extended duration of support and the increased EGF co-financing rate.

The European Parliament and Minsters from the 27 Member States (the Budgetary Authority) must approve each application and took ten decisions in 2009 to deploy the EGF (eight of these concerned applications submitted in 2009 and two concerned applications received at the end of 2008). The ten contributions granted targeted 10,938 workers who had been dismissed in eight Member States (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden), with a total of 52,349,047 Euro contributed from the Fund. The EGF contributions were granted to co-finance active labour market policy measures organised in the Member States (job-search assistance, training and re-training, help towards greater mobility, as well as support for business creation).

The report also describes the outcome of nine EGF contributions granted in previous years and their role in helping the workers to find new jobs. The Commission has received a total of nine final reports on the implementation of EGF contributions granted. These show that 3,717 dismissed workers in the automotive, textiles and mobile phone sectors had at the end of the EGF support period found new jobs (40.1 % of those receiving support). This rate was, unsurprisingly, heavily influenced by the financial and economic crisis, but Member States reported that the EGF contributions had allowed them to intensify their assistance for these workers and to extend the duration of support beyond what would have been possible without the EGF contribution, increasing their chances of finding work in the future.

European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF)

There have been 65 applications for European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) support since its start in 2007, for a total amount of over 373 million Euro (not counting four withdrawn cases), designed to help more than 70,000 workers in 22 industrial sectors in 18 EU Member States. The largest share of the applications related to mass redundancies in the automotive and textile sectors, followed by the printing, the mechanical/electronic and the wearing apparel sectors as well as the construction, electronic equipment and mobile phone industries.

The EGF was established by the European Parliament and the Council at the end of 2006 to provide support for workers who had lost their jobs due to the impact of globalisation. On 2 July 2009, the amendment to the EGF Regulation entered into force, applying to all applications received from 1 May 2009 onwards. This strengthened the role of the EGF as an early intervention instrument and as part of Europe's response to the global financial and economic crisis. The amended Regulation will make assistance from the EGF even more effective in the future, as the implementation period has been extended from one year to two years and as the EGF intervention rate has been increased from 50% to 65%.