REPORT on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on 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
22.11.2010 - (COM(2010)0582 – C7‑0334/2010 – 2010/2243(BUD))
Committee on Budgets
Rapporteur: Barbara Matera
MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION
on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on 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
(COM(2010)0582 – C7‑0334/2010 – 2010/2243(BUD))
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2010)0582 – C7‑0334/2010),
– 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 letter of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs,
– having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets (A7-0336/2010),
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 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 Slovenia has requested assistance in respect of cases concerning 2 554 redundancies in the enterprise Mura, European Fashion Design, which operates in the wearing apparel sector,
E. whereas the application fulfils the eligibility criteria set up by the EGF Regulation,
1. Requests the institutions involved to make the necessary efforts to accelerate the mobilisation of the EGF;
2. 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; emphasises the role that the EGF can play in the reintegration of workers made redundant into the labour market;
3. 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 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;
4. Notes that the information provided on the coordinated package of personalised services to be funded from the EGF includes detailed information on the complementarity with actions funded by the Structural Funds; reiterates its call to present a comparative evaluation of these data in its annual reports as well, including an evaluation of the effects these temporary and personalised services have on the long-term reintegration into the labour market of the redundant workers;
5. Welcomes the fact that, in the context of mobilising the EGF, an alternative source of payment appropriations to unused European Social Fund has been proposed by the Commission, following the frequent reminders by the European Parliament that the EGF was created as a separate specific instrument with its own objectives and deadlines and that appropriate budget lines for transfers must therefore be identified;
6 Notes that, in order to mobilise the EGF for this case, payment appropriations will be transferred from a budget line dedicated to the support of SMEs and innovation; regrets the severe shortcomings of the Commission when implementing the framework programmes on competitiveness and innovation, particularly during an economic crisis which should significantly increase the need for such support;
7. Recalls that the functioning and the 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 IIA of 17 May 2006 within the process of the 2007-2013 Multiannual Financial Framework mid-term review;
8. Welcomes the new format of the Commission’s proposal, which presents in its explanatory memorandum clear and detailed information on the application, analyses the eligibility criteria and explains the reasons which led to its approval, which is in line with Parliament’s requests;
9. Approves the decision annexed to this resolution;
10. 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;
11. 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/2010/014 SI/Mura from Slovenia)
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 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) Slovenia submitted an application to mobilise the EGF in respect of redundancies in the enterprise Mura on 28 April 2010 and supplemented it by additional information on 24 June 2010. 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 2 247 940.
(5) The EGF should, therefore, be mobilised in order to provide a financial contribution for the application submitted by Slovenia.
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DECISION:
Article 1
For the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2010, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund shall be mobilised to provide the sum of EUR 2 247 940 in commitment and payment appropriations.
Article 2
This Decision shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.
Done at ,
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 trilogue could be organised in order to find an agreement on the use of the Fund and the amounts required. The trilogue can take a simplified form.
II. State of play: Commission's proposal
On 19 October 2010 the Commission has adopted a new proposal for a decision on the mobilisation of the EGF in favour of Slovenia in order to support the reintegration in the labour market of workers made redundant due to the global financial and economic crisis.
This is the twenty-fifth application to be examined under the budget 2010 and refers to the mobilisation of a global amount of EUR 2.247.940 from the EGF for Slovenia. It concerns 2.554 redundancies in the enterprise Mura, European Fashion Design in Slovenia, which operates in the wearing apparel sector, during the fourth-month reference period from 21 October 2009 to 20 February 2010.
The application, case EGF/2010/014 SI/Mura, was submitted to the Commission on 28 April 2010 and supplemented by additional information up to 24 June 2010. It was based on the intervention criterion of Art. 2 (a) of the EGF Regulation, which requires at least 500 redundancies over a four-month period in an enterprise, including its suppliers and downstream producers, and was submitted within the deadline of 10 weeks (Art. 5 of the Regulation).
Commission's assessment was based on the evaluation of the link between the redundancies and major structural changes in world trade patterns or the financial crisis, the unforeseen nature of the concerned redundancies, demonstration of number of redundancies and compliance with the criteria of Article 2 (a), explanation of the unforeseen nature of those redundancies, identification of dismissing enterprises and workers targeted for assistance, the territory concerned and its authorities and stakeholders, the impact for the redundancies as regards the local, regional or national employment, co-ordinated package of personalised services to be funded, including its compatibility with actions funded by the Structural Funds, dates on which the personalised services to affected workers were started or planned to start, procedures for consulting the social partners, management and control systems.
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 (DEC 37/2010) for a global amount of EUR 2.247.940 from the EGF reserve (40 02 43) in commitments and from the budget line "Competitiveness and innovation Framework Programme - Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme" (01 04 04) in payments to the EGF budget lines (04 05 01).
The Rapporteur is pleased to observe that the Commission has identified an alternative source of payment appropriations to unused ESF Funds, in accordance with the frequent requests from the European Parliament.
However, she considers that the choice made in this case (budget line dedicated to the support of entrepreneurship and innovation) is not satisfactory given the severe shortcomings that the Commission encounters when implementing the programmes on competitiveness and innovation. In a period of economic crisis these appropriations should be in fact rather increased. She invites therefore the Commission to continue in her effort to identify more appropriate budget lines for payments in the future.
The IIA allows the mobilisation of the Fund within the annual ceiling of EUR 500 million.
In 2010, the Budget Authority has already approved fifteen proposals for the mobilisation of the Fund and a transfer for the Technical assistance, for a total amount of EUR 47.432.497, which added to the additional amount of EUR 28.502.666 related to the other proposals under discussion (including the present one), leaves an amount of EUR 424.064.837 available until the end of 2010.
III. Procedure
The Commission has presented a transfer request[3] in order to enter specific commitment and payment appropriations in the 2010 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 (an exchange of letters), 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.
Following its evaluation, the EMPL committee of the European Parliament gave its view on the mobilisation of the Fund, as expressed in the opinion attached to the present report.
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.
ANNEX:LETTER OF THE COMMITTEE OF EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS
ES/jm
D(2010)55373
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/2010/014 SI/Mura (COM(2010)582 final)Dear Mr Lamassoure,
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/2010/014 SI/Mura 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 in accordance with Article 2a of the EGF regulation and includes 2.554 redundancies that occurred during the reference period of 4 months between 21 October 2009 and 20 February 2010 in the NUTS III region of Pomurje in Slovenia in the bankrupt Mura Group manufacturing textiles and wearing apparel;
B) Whereas the financial and economic crisis caused a serious set-back for Slovenian textile industry due to the difficulties faced by some "textile end-users sectors" (i.e. construction, automotive industry and housing) and increasing production costs resulting in a drop in production of 23% in the textile industry and by 14% in the clothing sector in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period in 2008 with a consequent loss of 4.297 jobs in the manufacturing of wearing apparel between June 2008 and December 2009 representing 46% of all jobs that existed in June 2008 in this sector and with a loss of 2030 jobs in the textile manufacturing, representing 27% of all jobs, over the same period;
C) Whereas the Slovenian textile industry performed quite well in the EU27 and whereas Mura managed over the past years to guarantee contracts with demanding business partners by offering high quality production services through the production of small series and flexibility as well as by applying the "Just in time" principle;
D) Whereas some of the enterprises of the Mura group continued operating;
E) Whereas 7% of all people employed in the region of Promurje were working with the Mura enterprise and whereas this region was already lagging behind the Slovenian average with 33% lower revenue, 30% lower added value and 20% lower salary per worker;
F) Whereas the Slovenian authorities indicate that the proposed personalised services are the result of experiences gained by the ministry and the employment service working with redundant workers, and that, therefore, the trade unions were not actively involved in the preparation of the proposed activities. Whereas, however, the Trade Union of the Mura Group had been involved in the bankruptcy procedure from the start and assisted in listing the redundant workers and in organising social aid for the workers;
G) Whereas the Slovenian authorities confirmed that 1.932 workers out of the 2.554 redundant workers eligible for support will participate in measures included in the coordinated package of personalised services and that the costs for all measures are calculated on the basis of this reduced number;
H) Whereas 78,4% of the redundant workers are women and whereas nearly 96,1% of the workers are between 25 and 54 years old;
I) Whereas 45,9% of the dismissed workers are apparel manufacturers and textile workers and whereas for 43,1% of the dismissed workers the professional category is not specified;
J) Whereas 43,6% of the dismissed workers have not concluded primary school education and whereas 43,7% of them reached general or technical upper-secondary education;
K) Whereas 22,8% of the redundant workers have a longstanding health problem or disability as one of the companies of the Mura Group had a policy of employing people with disabilities and whereas the most serious cases were supported by measures financed by the Slovenian authorities on the basis of a special law while the other workers with milder health problems are entitled for EGF support but without special measures targeting their needs;
L) Whereas most of the workers did never work in another company than the Mura group;
M) Whereas the Slovenian authorities report that some workers are very satisfied with the measures included in the package of personalised services and whereas some of them seem to have already found a new job;
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 Slovenian application:
1. Agrees with the Commission that the conditions for a financial contribution under the EGF regulation are met;
2. Requests more information about the workers employed by the Mura Group beginning 2008 that are not included in the application;
3. Recalls the opinion of the EMPL committee on the Financing and Functioning of the EGF calling on the Member States to ensure that works councils are involved before any programme begins so as to guarantee that the social partners genuinely help to formulate conversion plans which meet the needs of employees and not of undertakings. Asks, therefore, the Commission to encourage the Slovenian authorities to take care of the participation of the trade unions at least in the implementation phase of the measures;
4. Notes that workers will be involved in several activities encouraging and enhancing the search for a new job, including mentoring, and ensuring the active participation of workers in these measures;
5. Regrets, however, seen the high percentage of early school leavers among the dismissed workers, that neither the recognition of acquainted skills and qualifications during working life is proposed nor a training aiming at the acquaintance of a certified higher educational level. Asks the Commission to explore together with the Slovenian authorities how these measures could be offered to the redundant workers;
6. Requests more detailed information from the Slovenian authorities about the possible measures put in place for the 583 workers with longstanding health problems or disabilities; is of the opinion that a package of personalised services targeting workers with health problems or disabilities should included special measures taking into account their needs;
7. Notes the innovative measure of neuro-linguistic workshops aiming at motivating the least motivated dismissed workers to learn and acquire new skills. Regrets, however, that there is no indication in the application about the aims of the trainings and whether they are guided to new sectors of work or encourage to more mobility towards other regions with more employment opportunities;
8. Calls for the Commission to enquiry more in depth the sectors towards which the workers are reoriented in terms of training or setting-up a business of their own. The aim of this in depth analysis should be to ensure the sustainability of the workers' reintegration on the labour market and hence the good-use made of the EGF. This assessment should be undertaken with a view to the aims set out in the EU 2020 strategy;
9. Asks the Commission to provide more detailed information about the possible state aid or financial support from European funds to the Mura Group before or after the accession of Slovenia to the EU.
Yours sincerely,
Pervenche Berès
RESULT OF FINAL VOTE IN COMMITTEE
|
Date adopted |
18.11.2010 |
|
|
|
||
|
Result of final vote |
+: –: 0: |
13 1 1 |
||||
|
Members present for the final vote |
Giovanni Collino, Jean-Luc Dehaene, José Manuel Fernandes, Eider Gardiazábal Rubial, Ingeborg Gräßle, Carl Haglund, Lucas Hartong, Monika Hohlmeier, Alain Lamassoure, Giovanni La Via, Vladimír Maňka, Barbara Matera, László Surján, Derek Vaughan, Jacek Włosowicz |
|||||