Text tabled : A7-0357/2010

  Maria do Céu Patrão Neves (PPE), in writing. – (PT) Given that Spain has submitted a request for assistance for 350 redundancies at 143 companies operating in NACE Revision 2 Division 13 (manufacture of textiles) in the NUTS II region of Comunidad Valenciana, I voted in favour of the resolution because I agree with the Commission’s proposal as amended by Parliament.

I also agree that:

- the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) should support the reintegration of individual redundant workers into employment, and I would reiterate that assistance from the EGF is not a substitute for measures that are the responsibility of companies by virtue of national law or collective agreements, nor is it intended to finance the restructuring of companies or sectors;

- the operation and added value of the EGF should be evaluated in the context of the general assessment of the programmes and various other instruments created by the interinstitutional agreement of 17 May 2006.

I welcome the Commission’s proposal to establish an alternative source of payment appropriations to unused European Social Fund resources, following Parliament’s frequent reminders that the EGF was created as a separate, specific instrument with its own aims and deadlines, and that suitable budget lines for transfers must therefore be identified.