Decision (EU) 2015/2457 on the mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (application from Finland — EGF/2015/005 FI/Computer Programming)

What it is

to mobilise the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) in order to assist Finland in dealing with redundancies in its information technology (ICT) sector. PROPOSED ACT: Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council. CONTENT: Article 12 of Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 1311/2013 laying down the multiannual financial framework for the years 2014-2020 provides that the EGF is not to exceed a maximum annual amount of EUR 150 million (2011 prices). The rules applicable to financial contributions from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) are laid down in Regulation (EU) No 1309/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (2014-2020) and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006. The Committee on Budgets adopted the report by Marco ZANNI (EFDD, IT) on the proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council on mobilisation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, for an amount of EUR 2 623 200 in commitment and payment appropriations in order to assist Finland in dealing with redundancies in its information technology (ICT) sector. Members recalled that the Union set up legislative and budgetary instruments to provide additional support to workers who are suffering from the consequences of major structural changes in world trade patterns or of the global financial and economic crisis and to assist their reintegration into the labour market. Finnish application : Finland submitted application EGF/2015/005 FI/Computer Programming for a financial contribution from the EGF following 1 603 redundancies in 69 enterprises operating in the NACE Rev. 2 division 62 ('Computer programming, consultancy and related activities') in several NUTS level 2 regions covering the whole of Finland. An estimated 1 200 redundant workers are expected to participate in the measures. Given that the conditions set out in point (b) of Article 4(1) of the EGF Regulation are met, Finland is entitled to a financial contribution for the workers made redundant. Nature of the redundancies : Members noted that in recent years the distribution of ICT sector employment between the Union and other economies has developed to the detriment of the Union and underlined that while in 2008, the technology industry employed a total of 326 000 people in Finland, the number of people employed by such companies in 2014 was 276 000, which corresponds to an average decline per year of about 3%. The events giving rise to these redundancies are the developments affecting Nokia in recent years. They stated that developing and designing operating systems for Nokia mobile phones used to employ thousands of Finnish people and these functions have now been transferred to countries outside Europe. These redundancies will further aggravate the unemployment situation in the ICT sector in regions struggling with a high unemployment rate. Members noted that redundancies in the ICT sector are affecting particularly the Oulu region in Northern Ostrobothnia where ICT sector has been a mainstay of the economy for years. They regretted that in spring 2015, there were approximately 1 500 unemployed…

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