The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund 2007 - 2014 : European implementation assessment : in-depth analysis

This European Implementation Assessment aims to provide a detailed overview of a range of official reports and evaluations concerning the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) between 2007 and 2014, namely the Commission's Annual Reports from 2008 through to 2012 on the activities of the EGF, the Report from the Commission on the activities of the EGF in 2013 and 2014, the mid-term review of 2011 and the final ex-post evaluation of the EGF in 2015. For this exercise, the analysis also draws on the findings of a European Court of Auditors Special Report, on past EESC and CoR opinions on the EGF, as well as on European Parliament and Member State positions, and on a range of other information sources. This assessment aims to consolidate the main findings of previous evaluations, reports and positions into a presentation of the overall achievements and difficulties recorded with the EGF over the period under review, in order to identify areas for improvement in the activities selected for EGF funding and in the implementation and monitoring of the fund. What is most apparent is that while the fund has clearly benefitted workers being made redundant in large enterprises, particularly the most vulnerable groups, and especially in a select group of Member States, further improvements are needed to ensure that the fund is used across more sectors more evenly, to the greater benefit of SMEs, and also to promote entrepreneurship. Finally, this assessment identifies ways in which the application process and implementation phase could be made more efficient, and suggests various means to better focus monitoring and future evaluations of the EGF.