GLOBALISATION ADJUSTMENT FUND : EGF SUPPORT FOR ITALIAN TEXTILE WORKERS.

On the eve of a review of this instrument, the European Commission granted, on 15 December, aid totalling 35.16 million from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) to Italian workers in the textile sector. This concerns aid for the guidance and training of workers in small businesses who have been affected by the general shift of clothing and accessories production in the European Union towards lower-cost non-EU countries. Vladimir pidla, the EU's commissioner for employment and social affairs, said that these payments are "the biggest from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund so far".

The Italian applications, approved by the Commission in September 2008 and then endorsed at budgetary level by the Council and the Parliament on 19 November, cover 5,955 dismissals: 1,044 in Sardinia (in five companies), 1,537 in Piedmont (in 202 companies), 1,816 redundancies in Lombardy (in 190 companies) and 1,558 in Tuscany (in 461 companies). In addition to the delocalisation of production, this sector has also been affected by the increase in imports of cheap textiles from low-wage economies, largely in Asia, where labour is less costly, explains the Commission.

REVIEW

Since its launch in 2007, the EGF has paid out a total of 67.65 million in aid following twelve applications concerning redundancies in the automotive industry (France, Portugal and Spain), in the mobile phone sector (Germany and Finland) and in the textile sector...