Dublin Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa has accused the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Employment Mary Coughlan TD of tardiness in the Government's application for aid for the 900 ex-SR Technics workers in north Dublin under the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund.
It emerged this week that the EU is still awaiting a Government response to its request for further information about the Irish application, submitted in early October. The European Commission divulged this information when answering a priority question (below) Proinsias De Rossa tabled at this week's Strasbourg EP Plenary Session.
Proinsias De Rossa said: "Last February’s announcement of the loss of over 1,000 good jobs at SR Technics aircraft maintenance base at Dublin airport was a brutal blow to communities and families in north and west Dublin and to the Irish economy as a whole.
"One of the responses immediately pursued by the Labour Party was to examine the possibility of accessing EU aid for these workers. At the meeting I arranged between SR Technics workers and the EU Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla in Brussels in April, the Commissioner told us that the Government could, and should, apply for aid under the EGAF, the new EU fund aimed at supporting and retraining workers who've lost their jobs as a result of changing global trade patterns. My Labour colleague Tommy Broughan TD also established that the Tánaiste was told the exact same by Commissioner Spidla when she met him in Brussels in early July.
"Yet eleven months after the SR Technics job losses were announced, in February 2009, it emerges that the Commission is still awaiting information from the Government about the Government's application. This tardiness is simply not good enough, particularly at a time of high and rising unemployment.
"Other EU countries facing similar unemployment crisis are much quicker in accessing EU support and in implementing job protection schemes. The Tánaiste must show the same level of urgency. The sooner she submits the final details to the Commission, the sooner it will be able to process this application.
"The ex-SR Technics workers have been treated abysmally by their employer, which simply walked away from its pension obligations to its workers. There is still a need to revise legislation relating to the protection of workers' pensions when their employer relocates to another EU country, as SR Technics is now doing by establishing in Malta. I will be raising this particular matter with the Commissioner-designate for Social Affairs, Hungary's Laszlo Andor, in his European Parliament public hearing in mid-January.”
Further information on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=326
ORAL QUESTION H-0459/09 for Question Time at the part-session in December 2009 pursuant to Rule 116 of the Rules of Procedure by Proinsias De Rossa to the Commission
Subject: SR Technics workers and European Globalisation Adjustment Fund
Could the Commission indicate whether any application for funding under the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund has been received from the Irish authorities to aid the former workers of SR Technics in Dublin and, if so, indicate what is the current status of this application?
Tabled: 30.11.2009, en, Reply to oral question H-0459/09 by Mr De Rossa, 17 December 2009
An application from Ireland to aid the former workers of SR Technics in Dublin was presented to the Commission on 9 October 2009. The application is based on Article 2(a) of Regulation (EC) 1927/2006 (the 'EGF Regulation') (1), which requires at least 500 redundancies over a period of four months in an enterprise in a Member State, including workers made redundant in its suppliers and downstream producers.
The application relates to the redundancy of 910 workers in the firm, 800 of whom were made redundant during the four-month reference period and a further 110 workers subsequently. The Irish authorities plan to assist 838 workers through active labour market measures, including guidance, training and assistance for self-employment.
The services of the Commission are currently analysing the application, and have requested additional information from the Irish authorities on certain elements. Upon receipt of the information requested, the Commission will decide whether to approve the application and to recommend it to the Budgetary Authority for a financial contribution.
At this point, the Commission has not yet finalised its assessment and therefore cannot yet comment on the outcome of the application.
(1) Regulation (EC) 1927/2006 of the Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on establishing the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, OJ L 406, 30.12.2006.