EU Bulletins

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) was established to provide additional support to redundant workers who suffer from the consequences of major structural changes in world trade patterns and to assist them with their reintegration into the labour market. The Interinstitutional Agreement of 17 May 2006 allows the mobilisation of the EGF within the annual ceiling of €500 million. Spain submitted an application on 1 July 2011 to mobilise the EGF in respect of 1138 redundancies in 513 enterprises operating in Comunidad Valenciana. The application complies with the requirements for determining the financial contributions as laid down in Art. 10 of Regulation (EC) No 1927/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 establishing the EGF and the European Commission has therefore agreed to mobilise an amount of €1,642,030 in order to provide a financial contribution for the application submitted by Spain.

On 30 March 2007, Neubrandenburger Wohnungsgesellschaft lodged a complaint with the European Commission alleging illegal State aid granted to Bavaria Immobiliengesellschaft, a property development fund, by means of a series of contracts concluded between Bavaria and itself. In 1998, the complainant had concluded the contracts forming a sale and lease back scheme for 12 blocks of flats in Neubrandenburg. On 9 October 2009, the complainant challenged the Commission’s preliminary assessment, that the measure would not involve aid within the meaning of Art. 107(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), before the General Court and had its complaint rejected as inadmissible. The Commission has now decided to call on interested parties to comment on its investigation and to forward all relevant information especially with regards to the market information available in 1998 with a view to completing the Commission's picture of the relevant market for sale and lease back schemes of large multi-party housing estates in eastern Germany at that time.