EMPLOYMENT - GLOBALISATION : PARLIAMENT GIVES GREEN LIGHT FOR GLOBALISATION ADJUSTMENT FUND.

PositionEuropean Globalisation Adjustment Fund

The European Parliament voted on 13 December to adopt the proposal for a regulation to establish a European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. The motion was passed by a large majority and by a show of hands. This was its first (and single) reading. Following a number of informal meetings and several trialogues, the agreement secured on 30 November yielded a compromise with the Council of Ministers.

This agreement was validated by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper) on 1 December. The Council should now endorse the regulation, as an A point,' at a future session. This should ensure the fund is operational in 2007, as proposed - something of a record in social annals since less than a year will have passed between the Commission's proposal at the end of February, and adoption of the regulation. A 'victory for workers and over our national differences,' declared a delighted rapporteur, Roselyne Bachelot (EPP/UMP, France).

POINTS OF AGREEMENT WITH THE COUNCIL

The Globalisation Adjustment Fund will only be triggered above a threshold of 1,000 job losses either within a single enterprise (including its sub-contractors) or in a specific sector. In the first case, the reference to the unemployment rate of the member state in relation to the Community average has been struck out. In the second case, job losses will be gauged at the level of one or two NUTS II' regions over a period of nine months; ie a wider geographic base than that put forward in the initial proposal.

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