EU
European Globalization Adjustment Fund: helping redundant workers
Parliament has updated the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, making it more accessible and better equipped to tackle global crises.
The European Globalization Adjustment Fund is one of the ways the EU is helping to tackle unemployment. Globalization can cause significant structural changes to world trade, which can lead to workers being laid off.
To support people losing their jobs due to globalisation or the economic fallout from major crises, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU created the European Globalization Adjustment Fund in 2006. It is an emergency solidarity fund, which is used whenever there is a need for it. The fund co-finances projects to help workers find new jobs or set up their own business.
Find out what the EU does to manage globalization MEPs secured these changes to the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund:
- Threshold for applications for support lowered to 200 dismissed workers (down from 500)
- Possibility to apply for a one-time investment of €22,000 to start a business or to finance employee take-overs
- Childcare allowance for child carers when taking part in training or looking for a job
Background
On 16 January 2019, MEPs voted in favour of plans to reform the fund for the post-2020 period. The aim was to broaden the fund's scope to offer assistance in case of major restructuring events linked to digitalisation, automation and the transition to a low-carbon economy. After successfully negotiating the changes to the fund with the Council in December 2020, MEPs adopted the regulation in April 2021.
The fund will be crucial in helping dismissed workers during these difficult times. It is now better equipped to help us face the challenges ahead and it will cover any type of redundancies following restructuring
Vilija Blinkevičiūtė (S&D, Lithuania)
MEP in charge of steering the proposals through Parliament Share this quote:
Find out more
- Procedural steps
- Press release: Parliament adopts a more reactive and accessible European Globalisation Fund
- European Commission: European Globalisation Adjustment Fund
- At a glance: European Globalisation Adjustment Fund
- Social Europe: what Parliament is doing on social policy
- Covid-19: how the EU fights youth unemployment
- European Solidarity Corps: opportunities for young people
- Youth employment: the EU measures to make it work
- Reducing unemployment: EU policies explained
- European Social Fund: fighting poverty and unemployment
- How the EU improves workers’ rights and working conditions
- Improving public health: EU measures explained
- Final vote on European Solidarity Corps
- Social security coordination: new rules for more flexibility and clarity
- Posted workers: the facts on the reform (infographic)
- Posting of workers: final vote on equal pay and working conditions
- Gig economy: EU law to improve workers’ rights (infographic)
- Better working conditions for all: balancing flexibility and security
- European Globalisation Adjustment Fund: helping redundant workers
- The Parliament’s fight for gender equality in the EU
- Globalisation's impact on employment and the EU
- Covid-19's economic impact: €100 billion to keep people in jobs
- Better working conditions for truck drivers across the EU
- Parents’ work-life balance: new leave rules for family care
- Parliament calls for measures to combat sexual harassment in Europe
- Female genital mutilation: where, why and consequences
- Understanding the gender pay gap: definition and causes
- Getting back to work after a long sickness or injury (video)
- Drinking water in the EU: better quality and access
- Accessibility: making products and services in the EU easier to use
- Disaster management: boosting the EU's emergency response
- Health threats: boosting EU readiness and crisis management
- Parliament calls for a new ambitious EU Disability Strategy
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