Text tabled : A7-0066/2012

  Jean-Luc Bennahmias (ALDE), in writing. – (FR) EUR 1.6 million to help more than 1 000 Spanish workers to retrain and find a new job: aid has been granted at the last minute. The cause: workers made redundant as a result of the economic crisis. This just does not make sense. I shall explain what I mean by this: the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) was established in 2006 to help towards the retraining of workers made redundant because of globalisation. Then the economic crisis hit and a derogation was introduced so that workers made redundant because of the crisis could also benefit from the fund; this derogation ended on 31 December 2011. In spite of Parliament’s vote to extend the derogation, the Council of Ministers decided against it. The result is that, although the effects of the economic crisis are, at times, still being felt very severely in the Member States, workers will be deprived of EGF support. From now on, this fund may only provide support for redundancies linked directly to globalisation. This is an aberration and a completely incomprehensible situation for our fellow citizens. The EGF will once again be under-used because of this pathetic decision taken by the ministers who represent us.