The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers (EGF) supports people who have lost their jobs due to globalisation or other major restructuring measures. These include financial and economic crises, trade disputes, the transition to decarbonisation, automation and digital transformation.
Working with all those involved, we have succeeded in speeding up the process in an important respect. EGF projects can now be started as early as two months after the EGF application. The EU approval procedure generally takes up to 6 months.
The EGF can now also be used to finance incentives for dismissed employees, for example, to encourage them to find a new job quickly, accept a reduction of salary or long commute for the new job or choose to participate in skills training. In German these go by the names of Sprinter-Prämie, Prämie zum Ausgleich einer Gehaltsdifferenz, Mobilitätsprämie, and Qualifizierungsprämie. These incentives are financed 60% by the EGF and 40% by national funds. More use is to be made of the incentives, enlarging the range of employment promotion measures (Book Three of the Social Code)
The current EGF regulation also provides for extensive support for starting businesses. Dismissed employees who decide to become entrepreneurs can receive up to 22,000 euros per start-up. In addition to counselling and skills training, investments in material resources necessary for the start-up are included. More emphasis will be put on this funding opportunity.