CELEX: 51987PC0275(02)
Language: en
Date: 1987-07-20
Title: SPECIFIC COMMUNITY PROGRAMME OF ACCOMPANYING SOCIAL MEASURES SHIPBUILDING PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL REGULATION INSTITUTING A SPECIFIC COMMUNITY PROGRAMME OF ACCOMPANYING SOCIAL MEASURES TO ASSIST WORKERS IN THE SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY WHO ARE MADE REDUNDANT OR THREATENED WITH REDUNDANCY

31.10.87                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                           NoC291/ll
             Specific Community programme of accompanying social measures — Proposal for a Council
             Regulation instituting a specific Community programme of accompanying social measures to
             assist workers in the shipbuilding industry who are made redundant or threatened with
                                                           redundancy
                                                       COM(87) 275 final
                                 (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 31 July 1987)
                                                         (87/C 291/09)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                            the longer-term beneficial effects of industrial measures
                                                                    on the most efficient shipyards and of measures taken in
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European               the context of employment and regional policies;
Economic Community and, in particular, Article 235
thereof,
                                                                    Whereas the structural changes upheld by Directive
                                                                    87/167/EEC are such that a' great number and a high
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                  proportion of shipbuilding workers will be or may be
                                                                    forced to change job, acquire new skills or move to
Having regard       to  the   opinion    of   the   European        another part of the Community, or, in the case of the
Parliament,                                                         more elderly workers, to retire early from working life;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                    Whereas, in view of the employment situation, it is
Social Committee,                                                   imperative that a Community programme of new
                                                                    accompanying social measures be adopted to assist
Whereas the shipbuilding industry is suffering from a               shipbuilding workers who are made redundant or
fundamental structural crisis;                                      threatened with redundancy;
Whereas structural change aimed at improving the
                                                                    Whereas the said new specific measures must encourage
competitiveness of the Community shipbuilding industry
                                                                    the absorption into economic life, socio-occupational
and reducing distortions in intra-Community trade will
                                                                    integration and geographical mobility of workers made
best be achieved by the concentration of orders on the
                                                                    redundant or threatened with redudancy, as well as faci-
most competitive of the Community's shipyards and on
                                                                    litate the transition to permanent retirement from
products with the greatest technological content;
                                                                    working life of elderly workers who are no longer
                                                                    considered as being in search of employment; whereas
Whereas by adopting the Directive 87/167/EEC of                     the said measures must complement the measures
26 January 1987 on aid to shipbuilding ('), the Council             qualifying for assistance under the European Social Fund
has introduced a tighter and more selective aid policy              and the European Regional Development Fund;
designed to support the present trend in production
towards ships with a higher technological content and
ensure fair and uniform conditions for intra-Community              Whereas when adopting the said Directive, the Council
competition; whereas the said Directive provides parti-             has also acknowledged that additional measures should
cularly in Article 4 for the fixing of a common maximum             be adopted in order to alleviate the social and regional
ceiling for aid applicable not only to all forms of                 consequences of the restructuring of the shipbuilding
production aid — whether under sectoral, general or                 sector; for this purpose, the Commission has submitted
regional aid schemes — granted directly to the yards but            to the Council and the European Parliament a communi-
also to aid to shipowners or to third parties where such            cation on the industrial, social and regional aspects of
aid is actually used for the building or conversion of              shipbuilding ( 2 );
ships in Community shipyards;
                                                                    Whereas the Fund shall assist in the implemention of
Whereas the situation of employment in the shipbuilding             policies designed to equip the workforce with the skills
industry is one of quantitative and qualitative mismatch;           required for stable employment and to generate
whereas the imbalance in the field of employment is                 employment opportunities; whereas the tasks of the
accentuated by the specific problems of the labour                  European Social Fund are defined in Council Decision
market in those declining industrial areas where                    83/516/EEC and whereas the types and limits of
shipbuilding is a major industry and unemployment has               expenditure which may qualify for assistance from the
already reached very high levels; whereas the said                  Fund are defined in Article 1 of Council Regulation
imbalance is also exacerbated by the time-lapse between             (EEC) No 2950/83;
immediate total or partial closures of certain yards and
(l) OJNo L69, 12. 3. 1987.                                          (2) COM(86) 553 final of 15. 10. 1986.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 291/12                             Official Journal of the European Communities                               31.10. 87
Whereas the European Regional Development Fund                     the merchant shipbuilding and ship-repair yards of the
contributes to the correction of the principal regional            Community who are made redundant or threatened with
imbalances within the Community by participating in the            redundancy under a restructuring plan adopted by the
development and structural adjustment of regions whose             firm, group of undertakings or, public authorities which
development is lagging behind, and in the conversion of            entails the termination, reduction or conversion of the
declining industrial regions; whereas a specific                   activities of the shipyards as a consequence of basic
Community regional development measure, contributing               structural changes in demand.
to overcoming contraints on the development of new
economic activities in certain zones affected by
                                                                                            Article 2
restructuring of the shipbuilding industry, was instituted
by means of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2617/80, as                1.    The Community programme shall encourage the
amended by Council Regulations (EEC) No 217/84 and                 absorption into economic life, socio-occupational
(EEC) No 3635/85; whereas the Commission has                       integration and geographical mobility of workers made
submitted a proposal to the Council for a Regulation               redundant or threatened with redundancy as well as faci-
(EEC) instituting a Community programme for the
                                                                   litate the transition to permanent retirement from
redevelopment of shipbuilding areas ( x );
                                                                   working life of elderly workers who, from the point of
                                                                   view of their national legislation, are no longer
Whereas, however, the provisions relating to assistance            considered as being in search of employment.
from the European Social Fund and the European
Regional Development Fund respond only in part to the              2.    The Community programme is intended to assist
specific problems of workers made redundant or                     shipbuilding workers made redundant or threatened with
threatened with redundancy in the shipbuilding industry;           redundancy with effect from 1 January 1987.
whereas the range of measures qualifying for assistance
from the European Social Fund which could be used to               3.    The duration of the Community programme shall
assist workers affected by restructuring is limited in             be three years as from 1 January 1988.
particular by the terms of Article 1 of Council Regu-
lation (EEC) No 2950/83; whereas the operations
backed by the European Regional Development Fund                                            Article 3
which, mainly through software measures to assist small
and medium-sized enterprises, are designed to create an            1.    Assistance under the Community programme shall
environment favourable to the development of new                   be granted for measures which form part of a
economic activities, are limited to certain geographical           programme which is defined at national level, is designed
areas; whereas, moreover, the workers affected by the              for the categories of workers, economic branch, groups
restructuring of traditional industries have difficulty in         of undertakings or geographical areas concerned and is
moving to available jobs and in responding to changes in           intended to remedy the causes of the imbalances
the demand for labour; whereas the adoption of new                 affecting employment and encourage social cohesion.
accompanying social measures of direct and immediate
benefit to all shipbuilding workers made redundant or              2.    The implementation of the programme shall be the
threatened with redundancy in the European Community               subject of a programme contract between the
is the most appropriate approach to solving this specific          Commission and the Member State concerned.
problem of the labour market;
                                                                   3.    The Member States shall be responsible for
                                                                   ensuring the proper implementation of the measures.
Whereas the proposed new accompanying social
measures comply with the guidelines contained in the
Council resolution of 22 December 1986 concerning an                                        Article 4
action programme for employment growth;
                                                                   1.    Assistance under the Community programme may
                                                                   be granted for measures to encourage the absorption of
Whereas to improve the impact of assistance, it is                 workers into economic life and their socio-occupational
necessary to ensure, on a trial basis, that the new                integration which are designed to promote the recruit-
resources are used in the form of programmes;                      ment by firms, particularly small and medium-sized
                                                                   undertakings and local employment initiatives, of
Whereas the Treaty has not provided the necessary                  workers made redundant or threatened with redundancy
specific power,                                                    on condition that their new employment contract is of a
                                                                   duration of not less than one year.
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
                                                                   2.    Assistance under the Community programme may
                                                                   be granted for measures to encourage the absorption of
                             Article 1                             workers into economic life and their socio-occupational
                                                                   integration which are designed to maintain their incomes
A specific Community programme of accompanying
                                                                   by compensating for any wage difference between the
social measures is hereby instituted to assist workers in
                                                                   old and new jobs of newly recruited workers on
                                                                   condition that the new employment contracts of such
(') See page 8 in this Official Journal                            workers are of a duration of not less than one year.
 ---pagebreak--- ^u.to.^                                          official journal of the European Communities                                                           ^oCP2^B^
o.       Assistance under the Community programme may                              2.    Assistance under the Community programme may
he grantedfor measures t o e n c o u r a g e t h e a h s o r p t i o n o f         be granted a t a r a t e of ^^Bo of the average gross wage
workers into economiclife andtheir socio^occupational                              of industrial workers in the member ^tate concerned.
integration which are designed to help workers made                                The amounts of assistance to be granted per person and
redundant or threatened with redundancy to set up a                                per unit of time, for each member ^tate, shall be as
firm or createanewselPemployed activity.                                           determined by the commission in the decision for the
                                                                                   year in question taken in accordance with A r t i c l e 2 ^ o f
                                                                                   Council Regulation ^ E E C ^ o 2 ^ 0 B ^ .
^.       Assistance under the Community programme may
he granted for measures to encou^agetheahsorptionof
workers into economiclife and their socioDoccupational
integration which are designed to promote the use hy
workers made redundant or threatened with redundancy                               P     In the case of the measures defined in A r t i c l e ^ ^ ,
of servicesoffereddirectly t o t h e m h y localcounselling                        only expenditure intended to cover the granting of an
hodies whose tasks consist mainly in helping workers to                            incomemaintenance allowance f o r a p e r i o d of not more
set u p a f i r m , create selPemployed activities or take part                    than t2 months per person shall qualify for assistance
i n a l o c a l employment initiative.                                             under the Community programme.
^.       Assistance under the Community programme may                              2.    ^ i t h i n t h e m e a n i n g o f this Article, ancomemain
he granted for m e a s u r e s t o e n c o u r a g e t h e a h s o r p t i o n o f tenance^ shallbe understood as the maintenance of the
workersintoeconomiclifeandtheirsocioDoccupational                                  gross wage and any payments necessary in order to
integration which are designed to promote employment                               retain any connected statutory and nonstatutory
in projects fulfilling collective needs and entailing the                          entitlements enjoyed by the worker in question for a
creation o f i o h s o f a m i n i m u m duration of one year.                     normal wage period in his former job.
D.       Assistance under the Community programme may                              0.    Assistance under the community programme shall
h e g r a n t e d f o r measures to encouragethe ahsorptionof                      be granted a t a r a t e of ^ ^ o of the average gross wage
workers into economiclife andtheirsocioDoccupational                               of industrial workers in the member ^tate concerned.
integration which are designed to maintain, for a                                  The amounts of assistance to be granted per person and
maximum period of n2 months, the same level of                                     per unit of time, for each member ^tate, shall be as
earnings for workers who have lost their joh and are                               determined by the commission in the decision for the
awaiting training o r a n e w ^ o h .                                              year in question taken in accordance with A r t i c l e 2 ^ o f
                                                                                   Council Regulation ^ E E C ^ o 2 ^ 0 B ^
                                                                                                                        ArrA^^
Assistance under the Community programme may he
granted for measures to encourage geographical mobility                            In the case of the measures defined in A r d c l e ^ ^ , o n l y
intendedtofacilitatethemovement of workers who are                                 expenditure intended to cover, f o r a p e r i o d of not more
made redundant or threatened with redundancy and are                               than t2 months per person, the administrative costs
obliged tochange their p l a c e o f r e s i d e n c e t o t a k e u p a           linkedtothesettingupof afirmandthecreationof a
new^ob or take part in a trainingcourse as well as of                              new self-employed activity as well as rental costs but
members of their family.                                                           excluding other operating costs shall qualify for
                                                                                   assistance under the community programme.
                                   Articled
Assistance under the Community programme may be                                    In the case of the measures defined in A r t i c l e ^ ^ , o n l y
granted for measures to facilitate the transition to                               expenditure intended to cover, f o r a p e r i o d of not more
permanent retirement from working life of elderly                                  than t2 months per person,the cost of services supplied
workers who are made redundant and, from the point of                              directly to workers by counselling bodies shall qualify for
view of their national legislation, are no longer                                  assistance under the community programme.
considered as being in search of employment.
                                                                                                                       A r r ^ ^
                                   A^c^B
                                                                                    1.   In the case of the measures defined in A r t i c l e ^ ^ ,
 P        In the case of the measures defined in A r t i c l e ^ ^ t ^             only e ^ p e n d i t u r e i n t e n d e d t o c o v e r , f o r a p e r i o d o f not
only expenditure intended to cover the granting of                                 more than t2 months per person, the granting of
recruitment aid foraperiod of not more than t2 months                              recruitment aid for projects aimed at the creation of jobs
per person shall qualify for assistance under the                                  and fulfilling collective needs shall qualify for assistance
community programme.                                                               under the community programmed the said jobs must be
 ---pagebreak--- No C 291/14                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                  31.10.87
stable or likely to provide additional training or                  early retirement, or are in receipt of a tiding-over
experience with a vocational content giving access to the           allowance in the form of a bridging allowance
labour market and facilitating employment in a stable               supplementing unemployment benefit, shall qualify for
job.                                                                assistance under the Community programme.
2.    Assistance under the Community programme shall
                                                                                              Article 15
be granted at a rate of 15 % of the average gross wage
of industrial workers in the Member State concerned.                1.    Assistance under the Community programme
The amounts of assistance to be granted per person and              towards eligible expenditure shall be calculated on the
per unit of time, for each Member State, shall be as              ' basis of an amount per worker.
determined by the Commission in the decision for the
year in question taken in accordance with Article 2 (2) of          The said amount may not exceed:
Council Regulation (EEC) 2950/83.
                                                                    — 2 500 ECU per worker in the case of the measures
                                                                        defined in Article 4,
                         Article 12
                                                                    — 1 500 ECU per worker in the case of the measures
1.    In the case of the measures defined in Article 4 (6),             defined in Article 5,
only expenditure intended to cover, for a maximum                   — 5 000 ECU per worker in the case of the measures
period of 12 months per person, of a tiding-over                        defined in Article 6.
allowance designed to ensure the same level of earnings
for redundant workers registered with an official                   2.    Assistance under the Community programme
employment office and calculated on the basis of the                towards eligible expenditure in respect of the measures
difference between unemployment benefit and the                     defined in Article 4 is limited to 2 500 ECU per worker
former level of earnings, shall be eligible for assistance          regardless of whether the worker participates in one or
under the Community programme.                                      more measures to encourage the absorption of workers
                                                                    into economic life and their socio-occupational
2.    Within the meaning of this Article, 'the same level           integration.
of earnings' shall be understood as the maintenance of
80 °/o of the gross wage plus any payments necessary in
                                                                    3.    Assistance under the Community programme
order to retain any connected statutory and non-
                                                                    towards eligible expenditure in respect of the measures
statutory entitlements enjoyed by a worker in respect of
                                                                    defined in Article 5 may be added together with
a normal wage period in his former job.
                                                                    assistance under the programme towards eligible ex-
                                                                    penditure in respect of the measures defined in Article 4.
3.    Assistance under the Community programme shall
be granted at a rate of 15 °/o of the average gross wage
of industrial workers in the Member State concerned.                4.    Assistance under the Community programme shall
The amounts of assistance to be granted per person and              not be granted in respect of expenditure which may be
per unit of time, for each Member State, shall be as                classed as eligible and priority expenditure, for assistance
determined by the Commission in the decision for the                from the European Social Fund.
year in question taking in accordance with Article 2 (2)
of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2950/83.                             5.    Assistance under the Community programme to
                                                                    cover eligible expenditure may not exceed the amount of
                                                                    the financial contribution made by the public authorities
                         Article 13
                                                                    of the Member State concerned.
In the case of the measures defined in Article 5, only
expenditure intended to cover the granting of a mobility            6.    For the purpose of granting assistance under the
premium intended to cover travel expenses, including                Community programme, the Commission shall give its
those of dependents, and removal expenses shall be                  consideration to expenditure made by the Member State
eligible for assistance under the Community programme               within the 12 months preceding the date on which the
on condition that the worker concerned can furnish                  application for assistance is received by the Commission.
proof of his new employment or participation in a
training course and has made application for the said                                         Article 16
allowance within 12 months following the date of his
redundancy or the end of his employment contract in                  1.   When assistance under the Community programme
shipbuilding.                                                       is not used in conformity with the conditions set out in
                                                                    the decision of approval, the Commission may suspend,
                         Article 14                                 reduce or withdraw the aid after having given the
                                                                    relevant Member State an opportunity to comment.
In the case of the measures defined in Article 6, only
expenditure intended to cover the granting of an                    2.    Sums paid which are not used in accordance with
allowance for the permanent retirement from working                 the conditions laid down in the decision of approval shall
life of elderly redundant workers who, from the point of            be refunded. The Member State concerned shall have
view of their national legislation, are no longer in search         secondary liability for the repayment of unwarranted
of employment, regardless of whether they have entered              payments. To the extent that a Member State repays to
 ---pagebreak--- 31.10.87                             Official Journal of the European Communities                          NoC291/15
the Community sums owed by the bodies financially               4.    The relevant Member State shall provide the
responsible for an operation, the Community's rights in         Commission with any assistance necessary to carry out
the matter are transferred to the Member State.                 checks. The Commission shall give the Member State
                                                                due notice of checks. Representatives of the Member
                         Article 17                             State may participate in such checks.
1.    Without prejudice to any contracts carried out by
                                                                5.    At the request of the Commission and with the
the Member State, the Commission may make on-the-
                                                                agreement of the relevant Member State, checks may be
spot checks.
                                                                carried out by the competent authorities of that State.
2.    Checks on the content of a payment claim may be           Representatives of the Commission may participate in
made by representative sampling. Where the sample               such checks.
check leads to a reduction, this shall be applied pro-
portionally to the whole of the amount claimed, once the
                                                                                          Article 18
Member State has had an opportunity to submit its
comments.                                                       This Regulation shall enter into force on the day
3.    The Member State shall ensure that the                    following its publication in the Official Journal of the
Commission has access to the information necessary to           European Communities.
enable it to appraise both the aims and content of
applications and of claims, and the progress, financing         This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and
and results of operations.                                      directly applicable in all Member States.