Globalisation fund could hit MEPs’ budget

The European Parliament is trying to ensure that a proposed fund designed to help workers laid off as a result of globalisation does not eat into its own finances.

The €500 million globalisation fund, which is expected to assist 35,000 to 50,000 workers a year, could be drawn from a pool of unused EU cash that would normally be a source of funding for the Parliament.

Disagreements between the Parliament and the Council of Ministers over the issue make the prospects of a first reading agreement on the fund unlikely.

"Nobody has any reservations about the fund itself. It’s just the question of where we get the money from," said Solange Hélin-Villes, spokesperson for Parliament’s Socialist group.

"Council did not agree with what Parliament had suggested, that the money be taken from what was not spent [previously]."

Member states would like the fund to be drawn from surplus cash from the previous year’s budget and margins from any given year. This money is usually available for Parliament’s use.

But Parliament would like the fund drawn from older unused cash that normally flows back to member states, said one Commission official.

"Parliament wants the freedom it has always had in using whatever is left in the budget from the previous year. It doesn’t want the money sucked up by the globalisation fund," he said.

The official claimed that the budgetary dispute should not have taken place in the context of current talks on the globalisation fund. "Discussions should not be done on the back of globalisation fund, but in their proper context, in budgetary discussions," he said.

Talks yesterday (22 November) between the Council and Parliament failed to produce an agreement on funding and on conditions for assistance, another thorny issue. "These are the crucial points," said one Finnish diplomat who participated in talks. "For Parliament, this is a whole package."

Further negotiations will take place prior to a Parliamentary vote on the fund next week (29 November).

Volkswagen’s decision to reduce staff at its plant in Brussels by over two-thirds, which was announced yesterday, is a textbook case of instances where assistance could be made. The Commission said yesterday that, in the absence of the globalisation fund, structural funds could be used to help the 3,600 workers.

The European Parliament is trying to ensure that a proposed fund designed to help workers laid off as a result of globalisation does not eat into its own finances.