Independent MEP Marian Harkin today (25 April) urged the last remaining EU Member States opposing the continuation of the EU Globalisation Fund (EGF) to "re-evaluate, reconsider, and remove the obstacles to keeping this fund beyond 2014".

Harkin, who chaired the last "trilogue" meetings between the EU institutions (Commission, Council and Parliament) to determine the future of the EGF, said that "the small number of countries still opposing the continuation of the fund must realise its value and reconsider their positions. This entails nothing less than a moral, political and economic imperative in this time of austerity and mass unemployment".

"EU leaders agreed in their council conclusions in February to maintain the EGF during the period 2014-2020. The time has now come for the last remaining opponents to end the waiting game and make a decision," she said.

"I have consistently called for improvements to the Fund to ensure it functions more smoothly and efficiently in future, but the bottom line is this: it must be kept. This is a fund for workers who lose their jobs, a concrete expression of European solidarity where packages are put in place for people made redundant to retrain, upskill, and embark on new educational or entrepreneurial ventures," Harkin concluded.
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Background Note: The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) was set up by the EU in late 2006 to help workers find new jobs and develop new skills when they have lost their jobs as a result of:
 
• changing global trade patterns, e.g. when a large company shuts down or a factory is moved to outside the EU or
• the global financial and economic crisis
 
Marian Harkin MEP is the European Parliament Draftsperson for the report on the EGF fund post-2014.