European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF)

External Publication

A Just Transition Fund – How the EU budget can help with the transition

On 14 January 2020, the European Commission published its proposal for a Just Transition Mechanism, intended to provide support to territories facing serious socioeconomic challenges related to the transition towards climate neutrality. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of how the EU can best ensure a ‘just transition’ in all its territories and for all its citizens with the tools at its disposal. It provides an overview and a critical assessment of the Commission's proposal, and suggests possible amendments based on best practices from other just-transition initiatives.

By: Aliénor Cameron, Grégory Claeys, Catarina Midões and Simone Tagliapietra Topic: European Parliament, Green economy, Macroeconomic policy Date: May 26, 2020

Policy Contribution

How good is the European Commission’s Just Transition Fund proposal?

On 14 January 2020, the European Commission published its proposal for a Just Transition Mechanism, intended to provide support to territories facing serious socioeconomic challenges related to the transition towards climate neutrality. This brief provides an overview and a critical assessment of the first pillar of this Mechanism, the Just Transition Fund (JTF).

By: Aliénor Cameron, Grégory Claeys, Catarina Midões and Simone Tagliapietra Topic: Banking and capital markets, European Parliament, Macroeconomic policy Date: February 26, 2020

Policy Contribution

How to make the European Green Deal work

Ursula von der Leyen has proposed a European Green Deal that would make Europe climate neutral by 2050. With this Policy Contribution, the authors provide a first analysis on how to make this initiative work.

By: Grégory Claeys, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann Topic: Green economy, Macroeconomic policy Date: November 5, 2019

Blog Post

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund: Time for a reset

It is only in the last decade that the EU has had an active policy to reintegrate workers who lost their jobs as a result of globalisation, through the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). In this blog, the authors assess the performance of the Fund and make three recommendations to improve its effectiveness. To be more successful, the Fund should improve its monitoring and widen the scope of its usage.

By: Grégory Claeys and André Sapir Topic: Macroeconomic policy Date: April 11, 2018

Policy Contribution

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund: Easing the pain from trade?

With the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF), the EU now has an instrument to help workers negatively affected by trade find new jobs. However, only a small proportion of EU workers affected by globalisation receive EGF financing. How to improve the EGF? Revising the eligibility criteria to qualify for EGF assistance, enlarging the scope of the programme beyond globalisation and collecting more and better data to enable a proper evaluation of the programme.

By: Grégory Claeys and André Sapir Topic: Macroeconomic policy Date: March 22, 2018

Opinion

EU should pay member states to get rid of coal

The European Union should act to ensure the continued transformation of its energy system, and encourage member states to overcome their dependence on coal for supplying electricity. Helping coal-mining regions with the transition should require €150 million per year – a mere 0.1% of the total EU budget – and the EU would not even need to establish a new fund to support it.

By: Simone Tagliapietra Topic: Green economy, Macroeconomic policy Date: December 5, 2017

Policy Brief

Beyond coal: facilitating the transition in Europe

Europe has a dirty energy secret: coal is producing a quarter of the electricity, but three-quarters of the emissions. The EU should propose that its member countries speedily phase out coal and put in place a scheme to guarantee the social welfare of coal miners who stand to lose their jobs, making a better use of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF)

By: Simone Tagliapietra Topic: Green economy, Macroeconomic policy Date: November 23, 2017