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

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

3. Directorate General for Trade

4. Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry
See separate Slide Show

5. Introduction to the EGF

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Time line in the Member State

15. The Member State
4 months / 9 months
10 weeks

16. The Employer
Notification
Contemplation
Dismissals…
Information
Consultation
Search for solutions

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

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

19. Time line in the European Institutions

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

21. 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

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

23. 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)

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

25. Monitoring and Evaluation
Olivier Rouland
DG Employment
Unit I/4

26. 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

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

28. 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)

29. 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

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

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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

35. 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))

36. 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)

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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

44. 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

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

46. 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