Hotel Bedford, Brussels Launch Meeting of the Contact Persons of the European Globalisation adjustment Fund 01 March 2007 Hotel Bedford, Brussels

Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Nikolaus van der Pas Director General of DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities

Directorate General for Trade

Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry See separate Slide Show

Introduction to the EGF

EGF Application Form The regulation does not specify an application form, but the Commission considers it useful for the following reasons: Consistency of information. All applicants will be asked to provide the same information in the same format, and thus the information on which the Commission will be assessing the applications will be fairly comparable, Ease of completion by the MS. Instead of having to read through the Regulation to try to ensure that all of the information required is provided, the MS needs only to complete the form as provided, knowing that it contains all of the requirements of the Regulation. Speed of assessment by the Commission. In order to assess all applications as quickly as possible, a standard format is essential. It allows the Commission to immediately see where data is missing or inadequate, and it allows particular sections to be easily copied to more specialised colleagues within the Commission. In addition, in the absence of 100% linguistic coverage in the EGF team, thee use of a standardised nomenclature allows the Commission to identify information easily even without understanding the language in which it is written.

The document that you have in front of you, which you see on the screen, and which is available on the EGF website, is the Commission’s proposed Standardised Application Form. It has been designed to be as short as possible, while still allowing the Commission to fully carry out its essential task of assessment. It contains sections which ask for all of the information required by the Regulation, and most of the information that the Commission considers that it needs in order to assess an application. However, it is possible that, after an initial assessment of the application, and after having consulted more specialised colleagues in the Commission, we will seek additional information, or clarification, from the national authorities. This is foreseen in Article 5 ((5) of the EGF regulation. The Application Form is formatted as a Word document that is protected, apart from certain fields which allow data entry. This means that the structure and the information requests cannot be altered, but the applicant can freely add as much information as necessary, or to copy and paste from other documents into the Application Form.

This slide shows you an example of the fields into which the applicant should enter the data required. The questions, or the explanations of the information required, are contained in the light grey sections, and the field into which the applicant can enter the data is indicated by a darker grey rectangle. This is shown here in the circle. It only appears in the document on your computer screen, not when it is printed. There is no limit to the amount of data that you can fill into these fields. You can type directly, or copy and paste from elsewhere. However, the Commission would prefer that you try to restrict the quantity of information provided, to make the application quicker to assess. If we need additional information, we will request it, and it will have no negative effect on the assessment of the application. You should try to complete the whole of the application form, but if you experience problems, please contact us in order to resolve them quickly and satisfactorily before the formal submission of the application. The single exception to this rule relates to the section on Management and Financial Control of the Assistance - Section I. Here, we will be able to accept a summary description of the control systems if, and only if, the Member State chooses to use the system already in place for the ESF. This point will be dealt with this afternoon in the item on Audit. The Application form will be available in all EU languages as soon as possible, and put on our website.

As an annex to the Application, we have prepared a Financial Plan, in order to allow applicants to present the elements of the coordinated package of personalised services, and the breakdown of its cost, as required by Article 5 of the Regulation. The Financial Plan is an Excel table, which allows both the applicant and the Commission to manipulate the figures. It is divided into two sections, called A and B. Section A, shown here on the screen, relates to the coordinated package itself, and allows you to list each action, the number of workers to be targeted, the cost per worker, and by a simple multiplication, the overall cost.

Section B, shown here, refers to the preparatory actions that the EGF may finance if the Member State requests it. These activities are listed in Article 3 of the Regulation. Here the EGF may finance preparatory, management, information and publicity, and control activities carried out by the Member State. These activities are not dependent on the numbers of workers concerned by the application, but the amount requested should of course be realistic and proportionate. The applicant is not obliged to request a contribution from the EGF for these activities, but the Commission would like to encourage good applications, and good implementations, and thus encourages the applicants to make use of this possibility.

EGF Guidance for Applicants I would like to move now to the companion document; the Guidance for Applicants. This document has been drawn up in order to clarify the large number of issues that may be unclear in the EGF regulation. It represents, in a non-legislative way, the Commission’s understanding and interpretation of these issues. It also, and more immediately, acts as a guide to applicants when they are completing the application form that we have just seen.

In order to be most useful to applicants, we have opted for a ‘side-by-side’ approach for the Guidance document. Thus, as you can see on the screen, and in the documents that you have in front of you, that the left-hand side of the pages contain the Application Form that we have already looked at, and the right-hand side contains guidance and commentary. The page numbering does not follow that of the Application Form, as some sections required long explanations. At all points we have tried to put the guidance and commentary directly opposite the section to which it refers.

Thus, in the example now shown on the screen, the comment on the right-hand side refers to the section directly opposite it. Where the Application Form is self-explanatory we have not repeated the text unnecessarily. Where possible, we have added the references to the Articles from the EGF regulation that require us to ask the question, or to seek the information. Time does not permit us here today to discuss the detail of the guidance provided, but there will be some opportunity for discussion at the end of this agenda item. If you have questions or comments on the guidance provided, we would be very interested in hearing them. As some of you may understand, the job of interpreting the regulation has not been an easy one, and we do not claim that the guidance provided is infallible – we may need to clarify some issues as we gain more experience in the operation of the EGF. But we will, in all cases, do this as transparently as possible, by updating the Guidance document on our website, and possibly through the addition of a ‘Questions and Answers’ section also on our website. As with the Application Form, it is our intention to provide translations of this Guidance document as quickly as possible.

Time line in the Member State

The Member State 4 months / 9 months 10 weeks

The Employer Notification Contemplation Dismissals… Information Consultation Search for solutions

Employers Member State 4 or 9 months etc… Notification Enterprise 3 Notification Enterprise 2 1,000 redundancies + Notification Enterprise 1

The Commission The Member State Application Preparation Implementation Final Report Winding up 6 months 12 months 6 months 10 weeks

Time line in the European Institutions

Preparatory phase: Assessment of application by Commission services in consultation with Member State (Art. 5.5 of EGF Regulation): 4 weeks

Proposal from Commission to Budgetary Authority (Art. 12.3): 10 to 11 weeks Approval by Budgetary Authority: 7 weeks minimum, except for requests made in August

Adoption by Commission of Financing Decision (Art. 12 Adoption by Commission of Financing Decision (Art. 12.7 of EGF Regulation): 1 to 2 weeks Transfer of the funds from the reserve to the EGF budget line: 1 week

From commitment of the funds until receipt of the amount on the Member State’s account: 2 weeks Total period (from the formal submission of application): 26 to 31 weeks (at least)

Essential conditions to meet time line: Formal application contains all necessary information Formal application does not require translation

Monitoring and Evaluation Olivier Rouland DG Employment Unit I/4

Legal Requirements: Commission will carry out, in close cooperation with Member States: Mid Term evaluation by the end of December 2011 Ex Post evaluation by the end of December 2014

Evaluation Questions Mid Term Evaluation: effectiveness and sustainability of results Ex Post Evaluation: Impact and the Added Value of the EGF

Total Of which female Number of participants Employed Of which Self employed Unemployed Inactive Of which in Education or Training Age Young people (15 – 24) Older workers (55 – 64 years) Vulnerable Groups Minorities Migrants Disabled Others Education Attainment Primary of lower secondary education (ISCED 1 and 2) Upper secondary education (ISCED 3) Post-secondary non tertiary education (ISCED 4) Tertiary education (ISCED 5 and 6)

Transmission: When: With the Final Report, except for LM Status (+12 months) What: Quantitative data and Qualitative Notes How: Table included in Final Report + Electronic Datasheet

Vincent Widdershoven DG Employment Audit Vincent Widdershoven DG Employment Unit I/2

Legal basis Article 18 of Regulation (EC) N° 1927/2006 Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Legal basis Article 18 of Regulation (EC) N° 1927/2006 management and financial Control Article 19 of Regulation (EC) N° 1927/2006 reimbursement of financial contribution

common objective for Member States and the Commission Interdependence Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Shared management common objective for Member States and the Commission Interdependence transparency

Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Risks in case of absence of audit and control absence of supporting documents payments outside period of eligibility breaches of public procurement rules non deducted revenues lack of follow up of irregularities ineligible expenditure multiple payment of the same costs lack of appropriate separation of functions weak controls by management and payment authorities

Responsibility in first instance for the Member State Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Responsibility in first instance for the Member State verifying that management and control arrangements have been set up and are being implemented verifying that the financed actions have been properly carried out ensuring that expenditure funded are based on verifiable supporting documents, are correct and regular

Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund preventing, detecting and correcting irregularities and recovering amounts unduly paid together with interest on late payments ensure that actions receiving a contribution under the EGF shall not also receive assistance from other Community financial instruments (art. 6(5)) present a report to the Commission on the execution of the financial contribution together with a statement justifying the expenditure (art. 15(1))

Responsibility of the Commission Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Responsibility of the Commission Satisfy itself that Member States have put in place smoothly functioning management and control systems check actions financed by EGF on the spot - apply financial corrections (article 19)

Objective of audit activity of the Commission Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Objective of audit activity of the Commission Gain reasonable assurance that final payments were made on the basis of eligible expenditure

How to get reasonable assurance Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund How to get reasonable assurance Check whether Member State has implemented efficient management and control procedures (assessment of systems descriptions) Closure audits

Assessment of systems descriptions Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Assessment of systems descriptions a) Member State uses ESF-management and control systems - rely on audit work already undertaken by the Commission - sufficient to do substantive testing in order to check whether systems worked as described and closure audits

Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund b) Member State uses other systems Commission to check whether the system fulfils minimum requirements The general key requirements a clear definition and clear allocation of functions an adequate separation of functions (as necessary to ensure sound financial practice) reporting requirements on intermediate bodies on performance of functions

verification procedures at the management level Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Essential elements verification procedures at the management level certification of expenditure statements by a functionally independent person or department verification of the effectiveness of the management and control systems and checks

Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Additional elements provide a detailed description of the management and control systems to be assessed by the services of the Commission; include all relevant bodies in particular the description has to specify for each body the functions vested in them to be updated or completed on a regular basis, and indicated in the annual report

Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund management and control systems must ensure a sufficient audit trail which permits reconciliation of the summary amounts certified to the Commission with the individual expenditure records and supporting documents, and verification of the allocation and the transfers of the available Community and national funds. specify the arrangements for the retention of supporting documents

Verify the reliability of the statement of expenditure (closure audit) Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Verify the reliability of the statement of expenditure (closure audit) did Member State carry out controls was closure process carried out in a correct manner - is the statement of expenditure legal and regular

Audit strategy for the years 2007-2008 Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Audit strategy for the years 2007-2008

Audit methodology (to be developed) risk analyses selection methods Audit of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund Audit methodology (to be developed) risk analyses selection methods contradictory procedures financial corrections