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
6.10.2010 - (COM(2010)0452 – C7‑0223/2010 – 2010/2164(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)0452 – C7‑0223/2010 – 2010/2164(BUD))
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Commission proposal to the European Parliament and the Council (COM(2010)0452 – C7‑0223/2010),
– 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 (A7-0271/2010),
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 Portugal has requested assistance in respect of cases concerning 839 redundancies in Qimonda AG, a multinational firm operating in the electronic sector in the NUTS II region of Norte,
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;
5. Welcomes the fact that, in the context of mobilising the EGF, an alternative source of payment appropriations to unused European Social Fund funds 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 European 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/2009/023 PT/Qimonda from Portugal)
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[3],
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) Portugal submitted an application to mobilise the EGF, in respect of redundancies in the enterprise Qimonda Portugal S.A., on 17 December 2009 and supplemented it by additional information up to 28 April 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 2 405 671.
(5) The EGF should, therefore, be mobilised in order to provide a financial contribution for the application submitted by Portugal.
HAVE DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
Article 1
For the general budget of the European Union for the financial year 2010, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) shall be mobilised to provide the sum of EUR 2 405 671 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 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 form.
II. State of play: Commission's proposal
On 2 September 2010 the Commission has adopted three new proposals for a decision on the mobilisation of the EGF in favour of Spain, Portugal and Denmark 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 sixteen application to be examined under the budget 2010 and refers to the mobilisation of a global amount of EUR 2.405.671 from the EGF for Portugal. It concerns 839 redundancies occurred in Qimonda Portugal S.A. operating in the electronic sector in the NUTS II region of Norte, during the four-month reference period from 8 June 2009 to 8 October 2009.
The application, case EGF/2009/023 PT/Qimonda was submitted to the Commission on 17 December 2009 and supplemented by additional information up to 28 April 2010. The application 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 13/2010) for a global amount of EUR 2.405.671 from the EGF reserve (40 02 43) in commitments and from the budget line "Completion of programme for enterprises: improvement of the financial environment for SMEs" (01 04 05) in payments to the EGF budget lines (04 05 01).
For the first time, the Commission has identified an alternative sourcing of payment appropriations other than unused ESF Funds in accordance with the frequent requests from the European Parliament.
The IIA allows the mobilisation of the Fund within the annual ceiling of EUR 500 million.
Art. 12 (6) of the EGF Regulation requests that on 1st September at least 25% of the annual maximum amount of the EGF shall remain available in order to cover needs arising until the end of the year.
In 2010, the Budget Authority has already approved eight proposals for the mobilisation of the Fund and a transfer for the Technical assistance, for a total amount of EUR 20.991.554, leaving an amount of EUR 481.228.446 available.
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 trialogue 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/sg
D(2010)46644
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/2009/023 PT/Qimonda (COM(2010)452 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/2009/023 PT/Qimonda 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 includes 914 redundancies of Qimonda Portugal S.A. that occurred during the reference period of 4 months between 8 June and 8 October 2009 in accordance with Article 2a of the EGF regulation while according to the Portuguese authorities unemployment rates in the NUTS II region of Norte rose from 9.1% in the third quarter of 2008 to 11.6%in the same quarter of 2009.
B) Whereas the redundancies were caused by an effect of globalisation which is the insolvency of the German multinational Qimonda AG in January 2009 that was the supplier of raw materials to the Vila do Conde unit and that collapsed itself due to various effects of the financial crisis.
C) Whereas the Norte region is the most densely populated and most highly industrialised region of the country with a strong concentration of traditional industries and agriculture as well as the emergence of new sectors, such as health technologies. Whereas the Norte region has higher unemployment rates than the country as a whole. Whereas the Norte region has already been accepted for EGF support in a previous case, EGF/2009/001 PT/Norte-Centro.
D) Whereas the loss of Qimonda also affects the future prospects of the region, which had been looking to this company as a success story in its efforts to introduce innovation, technological development and internationalisation.
E) Whereas long-term unemployment represents 49% of total unemployment in the Norte region.
F) Whereas about 20% of the redundant workers were highly qualified who are very likely to leave the region in the absence of immediate and attractive job opportunities.
G) Whereas, however, more than 75% of those dismissed worked as machine operators and assemblers. Whereas, in general, the region suffers from a low educational base, particularly effecting the older generation.
H) Whereas nearly 60% of the redundant workers are men and whereas nearly 75% of the workers are between 25 and 54 years old.
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 Portuguese application:
1. Agrees with the Commission that the conditions for a financial contribution under the EGF regulation are met.
2. Would be interested to have information about the workers dismissed in other parts of the German multinational Qimonda and if any attempt was made to join Member States for a common application in favour of all workers concerned in the European Union.
3. Welcomes the variety of measures offered to the redundant workers that will allow target and individualised support.
4. Welcomes also that the amount of the hiring incentive allocated to employer entities which sign full-time contracts with an EGF beneficiary worker will depend on the length and the quality of the contract offered.
5. Would be interested to know whether any of the measures are specially put in place to enhance employment opportunities in the future oriented sector of health technologies.
6. Indicates that by subsidizing newly created jobs also employees who do not immediately belong to the redundant employees of Qimonda.will be supported by this action.
Yours sincerely,
Pervenche Berès
RESULT OF FINAL VOTE IN COMMITTEE
Date adopted |
5.10.2010 |
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Result of final vote |
+: –: 0: |
36 2 0 |
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Members present for the final vote |
Damien Abad, Alexander Alvaro, Reimer Böge, Lajos Bokros, Giovanni Collino, Andrea Cozzolino, Isabelle Durant, Göran Färm, José Manuel Fernandes, Eider Gardiazábal Rubial, Salvador Garriga Polledo, Jens Geier, Ingeborg Gräßle, Estelle Grelier, Carl Haglund, Lucas Hartong, Jutta Haug, Jiří Havel, Sidonia Elżbieta Jędrzejewska, Anne E. Jensen, Ivailo Kalfin, Jan Kozłowski, Alain Lamassoure, Giovanni La Via, Barbara Matera, Claudio Morganti, Nadezhda Neynsky, Miguel Portas, Dominique Riquet, László Surján, Helga Trüpel, Angelika Werthmann, Jacek Włosowicz |
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Substitute(s) present for the final vote |
François Alfonsi, Frédéric Daerden, Peter Šťastný, Georgios Stavrakakis |
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Substitute(s) under Rule 187(2) present for the final vote |
Sabine Verheyen |
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