REPORT on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, in accordance with point 28 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management (application EGF/2011/021 NL/Zalco from the Netherlands)
15.10.2012 - (COM(2012)0450 – C7‑0220/2012 – 2012/2164(BUD))
Committee on Budgets
Rapporteur: Frédéric Daerden
MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION
on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on the mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, in accordance with point 28 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management (application EGF/2011/021 NL/Zalco from the Netherlands)
(COM(2012)0450 – C7‑0220/2012 – 2012/2164(BUD))
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission proposal to Parliament and the Council (COM(2012)0450 – C7‑0220/2012),
– having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management[1] (IIA of 17 May 2006), and in particular point 28 thereof,
– having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on establishing the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund[2] (EGF Regulation),
– having regard to the trilogue procedure provided for in point 28 of the IIA of 17 May 2006,
– having regard to the letter of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A7-0324/2012),
A. whereas 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,
B. whereas the scope of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) was broadened for applications submitted from 1 May 2009 to include support for workers made redundant as a direct result of the global financial and economic crisis,
C. whereas the Union’s financial assistance to workers made redundant should be dynamic and made available as quickly and efficiently as possible, in accordance with the Joint Declaration of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission adopted during the conciliation meeting on 17 July 2008, and having due regard for the IIA of 17 May 2006 in respect of the adoption of decisions to mobilise the EGF,
D. whereas the Netherlands has requested assistance for 616 redundancies, all of which are targeted for assistance, of which 478 redundancies are in Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV, 18 redundancies in its supplier ECL Services Netherlands bv and 120 in Start during the short reference period from 1 to 27 December 2011;
E. whereas the application fulfils the eligibility criteria laid down by the EGF Regulation,
1. Agrees with the Commission that the conditions set out in Article 2(a) of the EGF Regulation are met and that, therefore, the Netherlands is entitled to a financial contribution under that Regulation;
2. Welcomes this call for the EGF financial contribution by the Dutch Government even though this Member State has opposed the extension of the crisis derogation for the current EGF and jeopardises the future of the EGF after 2013;
3. Notes that the Dutch authorities submitted the application for EGF financial contribution on 28 December 2011 and that its assessment was made available by the Commission on 9 August 2012; regrets the lengthy evaluation period;
4. Notes that the territory concerned by the redundancies is within the NUTS II region of Zeeland, a province in the southwest of the Netherlands; Zeeland can be regarded as a small labour market: its peripheral location within the Netherlands, its situation as a border region with huge areas under water, and the relative vastness of Zeeland with its island structure, results in rather limited access and mobility; the dismissed workers live in relatively small towns (up to about 50 000 inhabitants), so that the redundancies will have a noticeable local impact;
5. Notes that the Court in Middelburg has pronounced Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV as bankrupt on 13 December 2011; social partners expect that other workers in upstream or downstream companies may be dismissed as a direct result of the Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV bankruptcy;
6. Welcomes the fact that in order to provide workers with speedy assistance, the Dutch authorities decided to start the implementation of the measures on 2 January 2013 well ahead of the final decision on granting the EGF support for the proposed coordinated package;
7. Notes that the redundancies will have a noticeable impact on local communities and the number of open positions compared to the number of unemployed; regrets that the application does not provide any statistical data about the labour market concerned;
8. Recalls the importance of improving the employability of all workers by means of tailored training and the recognition of skills and competences gained throughout the professional career; expects the training on offer in the coordinated package to be adapted not only to the needs of the dismissed workers, but also to the actual business environment;
9. Welcomes the fact that the relevant social partners and local municipalities were consulted on the application for the EGF assistance;
10. Welcomes the involvement of the social partners in the design of the coordinated package via the Mobility Center Zalco, a collective initiative of the parties involved in the Zeeland labour market;
11. Welcomes the fact that the EGF contribution is planned to support solely active labour measures (training and counselling) and will not be used for allowances;
12.Highlights the fact that lessons should be learned from the preparation and implementation of this and other applications addressing mass dismissals;
13. Regrets that the information on the training measures does not describe in which sectors the workers are likely to find employment and if the package has been adapted to the future economic prospects in the region;
14.Requests the institutions involved to make the necessary efforts to improve procedural and budgetary arrangements in order to accelerate the mobilisation of the EGF; appreciates the improved procedure put in place by the Commission, following Parliament's request for accelerating the release of grants, aimed at presenting to the budgetary authority the Commission's assessment on the eligibility of an EGF application together with the proposal to mobilise the EGF; hopes that further improvements in the procedure will be integrated in the new Regulation on the EGF (2014–2020) and that greater efficiency, transparency and visibility of the EGF will be achieved;
15.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 been made redundant as a result of globalisation and the financial and economic crisis; emphasises the role that the EGF can play in the reintegration of workers made redundant into the labour market;
16.Stresses that, in accordance with Article 6 of the EGF Regulation, it should be ensured that the EGF supports the reintegration of individual redundant workers into long-term employment; further stresses that the EGF assistance can co-finance only active labour market measures which lead to durable, long-term employment; reiterates 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; deplores the fact that the EGF might provide an incentive for companies to replace their contractual workforce with a more precarious and short-term one;
17.Notes that 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; reiterates its call to the Commission to present a comparative evaluation of those data in its annual reports in order to ensure full respect of the existing regulations and that no duplication of Union-funded services can occur;
18.Welcomes the fact that following repeated requests from Parliament, the 2012 budget shows payment appropriations of EUR 50 000 000 on the EGF budget line 04 05 01; recalls that the EGF was created as a separate specific instrument with its own objectives and deadlines and that it therefore deserves a dedicated allocation, which will avoid transfers from other budget lines, as happened in the past, which could be detrimental to the achievement of the policy objectives of the EGF;
19.Regrets the decision of the Council to block the extension of the "crisis derogation", allowing to provide financial assistance to workers made redundant as a result of the current financial and economic crisis in addition to those losing their job because of changes in global trade patterns, and allowing the increase in the rate of Union co-financing to 65% of the programme costs, for applications submitted after the 31 December 2011 deadline, and calls on the Council to reintroduce this measure without delay;
20.Approves the decision annexed to this resolution;
21.Instructs its President to sign the decision with the President of the Council and to arrange for its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union;
22.Instructs its President to forward this resolution, including its annex, to the Council and the Commission.
ANNEX: DECISION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of xxx
on the mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, in accordance with point 28 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management (application EGF/2011/021 NL/Zalco from the Netherlands)
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission on budgetary discipline and sound financial management[1], and in particular point 28 thereof,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund[2], and in particular Article 12(3) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
Whereas:
(1) The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) was established to provide additional support for workers made redundant as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation and to assist them with their reintegration into the labour market.
(2) The scope of the EGF was broadened for applications submitted from 1 May 2009 to 30 December 2011 to include support for workers made redundant as a direct result of the global financial and economic crisis.
(3) The Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 allows the mobilisation of the EGF within the annual ceiling of EUR 500 million.
(4) The Netherlands submitted an application on 28 December 2011 to mobilise the EGF, in respect of redundancies in the enterprise Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV and in two supplier firms (ECL Services Netherlands bv and Start), and supplemented it by additional information up to 18 June 2012. This application complies with the requirements for determining the financial contributions as laid down in Article 10 of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006. The Commission, therefore, proposes to mobilise an amount of EUR 1 494 008.
(5) The EGF should, therefore, be mobilised in order to provide a financial contribution for the application submitted by the Netherlands.
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
For the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2012, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) shall be mobilised to provide the sum of EUR 1 494 008 in commitment and payment appropriations.
Article 2
This Decision shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Done at Brussels,
For the European Parliament For the Council
The President The President
EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
I. Background
The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund has been created in order to provide additional assistance to workers suffering from the consequences of major structural changes in world trade patterns.
According to the provisions of point 28 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 on budgetary discipline and sound financial management[1] and of the Article 12 of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006[2], the Fund may not exceed a maximum amount of EUR 500 million, drawn from any the margin under the global expenditure ceiling from the previous year, and / or from the cancelled commitment appropriations from the previous two years, excluding those related to Heading 1b. The appropriate amounts are entered into the budget as a provision as soon as the sufficient margins and/or cancelled commitments have been identified.
As concerns the procedure, in order to activate the Fund the Commission, in case of a positive assessment of an application, presents to the budgetary authority a proposal for mobilisation of the Fund and, at the same time, a corresponding request for transfer. In parallel, a trialogue could be organised in order to find an agreement on the use of the Fund and the amounts required. The trialogue can take a simplified (written) form.
II. State of play: Commission's proposal
On 9 August 2012, the Commission adopted a new proposal for a decision on the mobilisation of the EGF in favour of the Netherlands in order to support the reintegration in the labour market of workers made redundant due to major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation.
This is the ninth application to be examined under the 2012 budget and refers to the mobilisation of a total amount of EUR 1 494 008 from the EGF for the Netherlands. It concerns 616 redundancies, all of which are targeted for assistance, in Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV and in two supplier firms (ECL Services Netherlands bv and Start) in the Netherlands during the short reference period from 1 to 27 December 2011. These redundancies were calculated as follows: for Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV using the third indent of the second paragraph of Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006, for ECL Services Netherlands bv using the first indent and for Start using the second indent.
The application was presented to the Commission on 28 December 2012 and supplemented by additional information up to 18 June 2012. The Commission has concluded that the application meets the conditions for deploying the EGF as set out in Article 2(a) of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006, and was submitted within the deadline of 10 weeks referred to in Article 5 of that Regulation.
One of the criteria for Commission's assessment was the evaluation of the link between the redundancies and major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation. The Dutch authorities argue that the European aluminium sector suffered from a sudden drop in consumer demand (a reduction by 25,7 % from average EU aluminium usage between 2008 and 2009)[3]. The production of Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV was dependent on the construction and transport industry (which represented 63 % of the main end-user market of aluminium products in Europe in 2010)[4]. The majority of Zalco's Aluminium Zeeland Company NV production was produced for the rolling and extrusion industry. Almost their entire production of extrusion billets was used for the construction and transport industries, and in particular in the automotive sector. Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV suffered from the declining demand - due to the global financial and economic crisis - in these two sectors leading, after unsuccessful attempts to overcome the difficulties, to bankruptcy at the end of 2011.
The Commission has already recognised that, as some 60-80 % (depending on the Member State) of new cars in Europe are purchased with the aid of credit, the financial crisis at the origin of the downturn hit the automotive industry particularly severely. According to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA)[5], demand for new motor vehicles in the European Union decreased in 2009 by 5,8 % compared to 2008 and by 13,4 % compared to the pre-crisis year 2007[6]. Faced with this drop in demand, manufacturers of motor vehicles reduced their production even more drastically. In 2009 the production of motor vehicles in the EU decreased by 17 % compared to 2008 and by 23 % compared to 2007[7]. This downward trend continued in 2010. The production of motor vehicles in the EU in the first three quarters of 2010 was 14,6 % below that of the same period in 2008[8].
The Netherlands also underlines the negative impact of the severe slow-down of aluminium production (a reduction by 21 % from average EU aluminium production between 2008 and 2009)1 on Zalco's Aluminium Zeeland Company NV revenues. The Court in Middelburg pronounced Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV as bankrupt on 13 December 2011.
The co-ordinated package of personalised services to be funded, including its compatibility with actions funded by the Structural Funds, includes measures for the reintegration of the 616 targeted workers into employment, such as individual process guidance, occupational guidance and assessment, training and re-training, outplacement services, entrepreneurship promotion, and measures to stimulate older workers.
According to the Dutch authorities, all the aforementioned measures combine to form a co-ordinated package of personalised services and represent active labour market measures with the aim of re-integrating the workers into the labour market. These personalised services started on 2 January 2012.
As regards the criteria contained in Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006, the Dutch authorities in their application:
· confirmed that the financial contribution from the EGF does not replace measures which are the responsibility of companies by virtue of national law or collective agreements;
· demonstrated that the actions provide support for individual workers and are not to be used for restructuring companies or sectors;
· confirmed that the eligible actions referred to above do not receive assistance from other EU financial instruments.
Concerning management and control systems, the Netherlands has notified the Commission that that the financial contribution will be managed and controlled by the same bodies that manage and control the ESF.
In accordance with Commission's assessment, the application fulfils the eligibility criteria set up by the EGF Regulation and recommends to the Budget Authority to approve the applications.
In order to mobilise the Fund, the Commission has submitted to the Budget Authority a transfer request for a global amount of EUR 1 494 008 from the EGF reserve line 40 02 43 in commitments to the EGF budget line 04 05 01.
The IIA allows the mobilisation of the Fund within the annual ceiling of EUR 500 million.
This is ninth proposal for the mobilisation of the Fund submitted to the Budget Authority in 2012. Therefore, deducing from the appropriations available the current amount requested (EUR 1 494 008) an amount of EUR 474 797 228 still remains available until the end of 2012. This will leave more than 25% of the maximum annual amount earmarked for the EGF available for allocations during the last four months of 2012, as required by Article 12(6) of the EGF Regulation.
III. Procedure
The Commission has presented a transfer request in order to enter specific commitment appropriations in the 2012 budget, as required in Point 28 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006.
The trilogue on the Commission's proposal for a Decision on the mobilisation of the EGF could take a simplified form, as provided for in Article 12(5) of the legal base, unless there is no agreement between the Parliament and the Council.
According to an internal agreement, the Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL) should be associated to the process, in order to provide constructive support and contribution to the assessment of the applications from the Fund. EMPL will table amendments as well as a letter of opinion, to the report reflecting their position and input.
The Joint Declaration of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, adopted during the conciliation meeting on 17 July 2008, has confirmed the importance of ensuring a rapid procedure with due respect of the Interinstitutional Agreement for the adoption of decisions on the mobilisation of the Fund.
- [1] OJ C 139, 14.6.2006, p. 1.
- [2] OJ L 406, 30.12.2006, p. 1.
- [3] Statistics based on Eurostat (PRODCOM and COMEXT data) quoted in the final report "Competitiveness of the EU Non-ferrous Metals Industries" - Framework Contract "Sector Competitiveness Studies" - European Commission, Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry - 5 April 2011.
- [4] European Aluminium Association (www.alueurope.eu).
- [5] http://www.acea.be.
- [6] ACEA - Statistics "new vehicle registrations by manufacturer and by vehicle category (Enlarged Europe)" - 2007 to 2009.
- [7] ACEA - Economic Report European Union (March 2010).
- [8] ACEA - Economic Report European Union (July 2011).
ANNEX: LETTER OF THE COMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS
EK/ic
D(2012)47752
M. Alain Lamassoure
President of the Committee on budgets
ASP 13E158
Subject: Opinion on the mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for the case EGF/2011/021 NL/Zalco from the Netherlands (COM(2011)450 final)
Dear Chair,
The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) as well as its Working Group on the EGF examined the mobilisation of the EGF for the case EGF/2011/021 NL/Zalco from the Netherlands and adopted the following opinion.
The EMPL committee and the Working Group on the EGF are in favour of the mobilisation of the Fund concerning this request. In this respect, the EMPL committee presents some remarks without, however, putting into question the transfer of the payments.
The deliberations of the EMPL committee are based on the following considerations:
A) Whereas this application is based on Article 2 (a) of the EGF regulation and targets for support all 616 workers of Zalco Aluminium Zeeland Company NV and its two suppliers made redundant between 1 December and 27 December 2011;
B) Whereas the Dutch authorities argue that the redundancies were caused by the global financial and economic crisis resulting in a sudden drop in consumer demand reflected in 25,7% drop in average EU aluminium usage between 2008-2009, especially in automobile and constructions sectors;
C) Whereas the Dutch authorities argue that the global and financial crisis led to bankruptcy of Zalco at the end of 2011 despite the attempts to adapt the production process in the last three years of operation;
D) Whereas Zeeland is a small labour market with limited access and mobility;
E) Whereas 96,27 % of the workers targeted by the measures are men; whereas 62,82 % of the workers are between 24-54 years old and 18,67 % are older than 54 years; whereas 27 of the targeted workers are disabled or suffer from longstanding health problems;
F) Whereas 44,32 % of the dismissed workers were technicians and further 42,53% were active as plant and machine operators and assemblers;
Therefore, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs calls on the Committee on Budgets, as the committee responsible, to integrate the following suggestions in its motion for a resolution concerning the Dutch application:
1. Welcomes this call for the EGF financial contribution by the Dutch Government even though this Member State has opposed the extension of the crisis derogation for the current EGF and jeopardises the future of the EGF after 2013;
2. Agrees with the Commission that the conditions set out in Articles 2 (a) of the EGF regulation (1927/2006) are met and that, therefore, the Netherlands are entitled to a financial contribution under this regulation;
3. Notes that the Dutch authorities submitted the application for EGF financial contribution on 28 December 2011 and that its assessment was made available by the European Commission on 9 August 2012; regrets the lengthy evaluation period;
4. Notes that the application clearly states that 'cuts in public expenditure had a direct negative impact on investments in infrastructure and housing programmes', thus nurturing the vicious circle between austerity and the accelerated destruction of industrial jobs in the EU;
5. Notes that the redundancies will have a noticeable impact on local communities and the number of open positions compared to the number of unemployed; regrets that the application does not provide any statistical data about the labour market concerned;
6. Welcomes the fact that in order to provide workers with speedy assistance, the Dutch authorities decided to start the implementation of the measures on 2 January 2013 well ahead of the final decision on granting the EGF support for the proposed coordinated package;
7. Welcomes the involvement of the social partners in the design of the coordinated package via the Mobility Center Zalco, a collective initiative of the parties involved in the Zeeland labour market;
8. Regrets that the information on the training measures does not describe in which sectors the workers are likely to find employment and if the package is adapted to the future economic prospects in the region;
9. Welcomes the fact that the EGF contribution is planned to support solely active labour measures (training and counselling) and will not be used for allowances;
Yours sincerely,
Pervenche Berès
RESULT OF FINAL VOTE IN COMMITTEE
|
Date adopted |
10.10.2012 |
|
|
|
|
|
Result of final vote |
+: –: 0: |
28 5 2 |
|||
|
Members present for the final vote |
Marta Andreasen, Richard Ashworth, Francesca Balzani, Reimer Böge, Zuzana Brzobohatá, Jean Louis Cottigny, James Elles, Göran Färm, José Manuel Fernandes, Eider Gardiazábal Rubial, Salvador Garriga Polledo, Jens Geier, Ivars Godmanis, Ingeborg Gräßle, Lucas Hartong, Jutta Haug, Sidonia Elżbieta Jędrzejewska, Sergej Kozlík, Jan Kozłowski, Alain Lamassoure, Giovanni La Via, George Lyon, Barbara Matera, Juan Andrés Naranjo Escobar, Dominique Riquet, Potito Salatto, Alda Sousa, Helga Trüpel, Derek Vaughan, Angelika Werthmann |
||||
|
Substitute(s) present for the final vote |
Alexander Alvaro, Jürgen Klute, Georgios Papastamkos, Nils Torvalds, Catherine Trautmann |
||||