European Union releases 2.7 million euros for Galicia car parts workers

The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union have released EUR 2 725 100 from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers to help workers made redundant in Galicia’s automotive ancillary sector back into work. The measure is set out in Decision (EU) 2026/2453 of 7 October 2026, published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 29 October 2026 under application EGF/2026/002 ES/Galicia automotive ancillary.

The instrument frames the payment as an act of solidarity with displaced workers in a region heavily exposed to vehicle manufacturing. Under the decision, the fund “aims to demonstrate solidarity and promote decent and sustainable employment in the Union by providing support for workers made redundant and self-employed persons whose activity has ceased in the case of major restructuring events and assisting them in returning to decent and sustainable employment as soon as possible”.

The legal basis is Article 15(1), first subparagraph, of Regulation (EU) 2021/691 on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund for Displaced Workers, read together with point 9 of the Interinstitutional Agreement of 16 December 2020 on budgetary discipline and sound financial management. The fund may not exceed a maximum annual amount of EUR 30 million at 2018 prices, as laid down in Article 8 of Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2020/2093 as amended by Council Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/765, and in Article 16 of Regulation (EU) 2021/691.

An application lodged by Spain in April

Spain submitted its application to mobilise the fund on 7 April 2026, in accordance with Article 8(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/691, and completed it with additional information supplied under Article 8(5). The Commission assessed the file as meeting the conditions for a financial contribution laid down in Article 13 of the same regulation, and set out that assessment in its proposal for a mobilisation decision, COM(2026) 170.

Five manufacturing branches in one region

The displacements covered by the application concern activity classified in the statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community, Revision 2, in the following divisions:

• Division 25: manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment
• Division 27: manufacture of electrical equipment
• Division 28: manufacture of machinery and equipment
• Division 29: manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers
• Division 74: other professional, scientific and technical activities

The territory concerned is the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics level 2 region of Galicia (ES11) in Spain, the decision states.

Commitments and payments in the 2026 budget

Article 1 of the decision mobilises the fund for the general budget of the Union for the financial year 2026, providing EUR 2 725 100 in both commitment and payment appropriations. Article 2 provides that the decision enters into force on the day of its publication in the Official Journal and applies from 7 October 2026, a retroactive effect the co-legislators justify by the need “to minimise the time taken to mobilise the EGF”.

The text was done at Strasbourg on 7 October 2026 and signed for the two institutions by R. Metsola, President of the European Parliament, and T. Byrne, President of the Council.

The release is one of a series of mobilisation decisions adopted in the same period for displaced workers in other Member States, each charged against the same annual envelope. For Galicia, the practical effect is that national and regional bodies can now draw on a defined EU contribution to fund re-employment measures for workers whose jobs disappeared with the restructuring of the region’s vehicle supply chain, in a territory where ancillary plants and their dependent employment are concentrated in a small number of municipalities. The EUR 2 725 100 is a modest sum against the size of the regional economy, but it is committed and payable within the current financial year, which makes it available while the affected workers are still in the labour market rather than after the fact.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, L series, 2026/2453, 29 October 2026, legislation, p. 1–2 (official reference: CELEX L_202602453).