mr president the european globalisation adjustment fund is a tangible expression of solidarity with workers who have lost their jobs due to major structural changes in world trade patterns
as members of this parliament it can give us some satisfaction that we can make a contribution to alleviating some of the more immediate effects of redundancy for these workers indeed giving them some hope for the future
however our role should not just be to approve this fund
we have a responsibility to do our best to ensure first of all that all criteria are met but also to do what is in our power to ensure that the globalisation fund ensures added value
one of the relevant issues raised by the committee on employment is that the measures proposed by member states complement other actions cofinanced by the structural funds and really we need more than a simple confirmation that this is the case
it needs to be demonstrated that this is the case because this will help to ensure the added value i spoke of
also the added value will come from the fact that the egf will not replace actions that are the responsibility of companies but are a valuable addition to measures taken at national level
while we are evaluating the added value of the fund within the process of the two thousand and seven twenty thirteen multiannual framework budget review this should in my opinion be an ongoing process and we need to be vigilant in the area
another matter which is of some concern to me is the implementation of equality between men and women and non-discrimination within the framework of the fund
i have taken a quick look at the gender breakdown of the three programmes targeted for assistance and they run ninety-one seventy-two and seventy-nine male
i have looked at some of the other programmes that we have funded before this and there seems to be an indication that there is a much greater percentage of the funding going towards male workers that have been made redundant
this may be a statistical aberration or it may be a situation where for one reason or another a greater number of the applications are for male workers
finally we need to carefully evaluate all applications because it is crucial that assistance is made available as quickly and efficiently as possible
