EGF Response

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF) is a special EU instrument to express EU solidarity with European workers or the self-employed that were displaced due to restructuring and to help them find new jobs.

REGULATION (EU) 2021/691 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 28 April 2021 on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF) and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1309/2013 was published in the Official Journal on the 3rd May 2021 and is available here

The main aspects of the new regulation are that all reasons for restructuring are now eligible for support, including the economic effects of the coronavirus crisis and larger economic trends such as decarbonisation and automation.  Job losses arising from changing trade patterns or as a consequence of the financial and economic crisis for which workers could previously receive support also continue to be eligible. 

The formal requirement is that a minimum of 200 workers have lost their job within a specific reference period.  The 200 redundancies can occur over a four month period in a single company (including suppliers /downstream producers) or in a number of companies, particularly SMEs operating in the same or different economic sectors in a particular NUTS 2 region; or over a six-month period in a number of companies, particularly SMEs operating in a particular economic sector in one or two adjoining NUTS 2 regions.

Further details are available here