MEP opposes moves to exclude farmers, SMEs from retraining fund

Farmers, small business owners and self-employed workers will have to fight to be included in a €2.5 billion fund to retrain and upskill European victims of globalisation.

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) is intended to fund the upskilling of newly redundant workers. Typically, in Irish terms, these would be ex-Dell or Waterford Crystal workers whose jobs were either globally displaced or lost due to global pressures. These people would have their retraining in new skills part funded by the EU.

Ireland South MEP Sean Kelly is resisting a move by German MEP Jens Geier to have the rules amended to exclude farmers and owner-managers of micro, small and medium enterprises from the EGF.