Globalisation victims may get retraining cash

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 23/02/06

The European Commission will unveil its plans for a globalisation fund to retrain EU citizens laid off as a result of major restructuring on Wednesday (1 March).

If agreed by member states and MEPs, the fund would be available in the event of mass lay-offs in a particular region resulting from globalisation.

The idea is that, like the EU solidarity fund that releases money to help regions hit by natural catastrophes, the globalisation fund would be able to release money as quickly and with as little red tape as possible to help redundant workers retrain and move back into sectors with higher growth potential.

A spokesman for Vladimir S

pidla, the employment commissioner, said: "Funds would be released in response to redundancies that are the result of changes in world trade patterns. A member state could apply for funds, explaining why the redundancies took place, and this would have to be approved by the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament."

Member states would dip into the so-called de-committed funds - unallocated money - in the EU budget for any pay-outs.

Although heads of state agreed on the fund as part of the EU budget for 2007-13 in December, there has been scepticism over both the need for such a fund and the cost of financing it.

At the informal EU summit at Hampton Court last October, several member states, including Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Denmark and the Netherlands, opposed the plan. The UK and France have supported it.

Article anticipates the presentation of plans by the European Commission, on 1 March 2006, for a globalisation fund to retrain EU citizens laid off as a result of major restructuring. If agreed by member states and MEPs, the fund would be available in the event of mass lay-offs in a particular region resulting from globalisation.