1. As the Honourable Member is aware, EU funding of this kind is managed via the national authorities. The Commission would therefore suggest that she contact the Portuguese authorities responsible for managing the programmes concerned directly. In the case of the European Social Fund and of the European Regional Development Fund, the Portuguese contacts are:

IGFSE - Instituto de Gestão do Fundo Social Europeu, I.P.

Rua Castilho, nº 5 - 6º/7º/8º
1250-066 Lisboa
Tel.: 21 359 16 00
Fax: 21 359 16 01

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http://www.igfse.pt

Gabinete de Gestão do POPH

Avenida José Malhoa, n.º 14 - 7.º A
1070-158 Lisboa
Tel.: 21 722 72 81
Fax: 21 724 11 80

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http://www.poph.qren.pt

IFDR - Instituto Financeiro para o Desenvolvimento Regional, I.P.

Rua S. Julião, n° 63
1149-030 Lisboa
Tel.: 00351 21 881 40 00
Fax: 00351 21 888 11 11

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http://www.qca.pt

Gabinete de Gestão do Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade
Rua Rodrigues Sampaio, n° 13
1169-028 Lisboa
Tel.: 00351 213 112 100
Fax: 00351 213 112 197
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http://www.pofc.qren.pt/ 

Furthermore, as part of the transparency policy applied by the Commission in conjunction with the Member States, many internet sites have been created concerning the Structural Funds, which form a valuable source of information for this type of research.

2. The Commission would point out that Directives 2008/94/EC¹ and 2001/23/EC² may prove to be applicable to this case. Directive 2008/94/EC seeks to protect employees in the event of their employer's insolvency, in particular in order to guarantee payment of employees' outstanding claims. To that end it requires the Member States to set up an institution to guarantee the payments. Such institutions must ensure payment of employees' outstanding claims for a period determined by the Member States. The Directive lays down an EU minimum guarantee period covering the remuneration for the last three months (within a reference period of at least six months) or eight weeks (within a reference period of at least 18 months).

Directive 2001/23/EC provides in the main that: (a) the transferor's rights and obligations arising from an employment relationship existing at the date of a transfer are transferred to the transferee; (b) a transfer does not in itself constitute grounds for dismissal by the transferor or the transferee, which provision, however, does not stand in the way of dismissals for economic, technical or organisational reasons entailing changes in the workforce.

Nevertheless, unless the Member States provide otherwise, those safeguards do not apply to transfers in connection with bankruptcy or analogous insolvency proceedings mentioned in Article 5(1) of the Directive³. In order to ascertain the existence of a transfer within the meaning of the Directive, two conditions must be met: (1) there must a change of employer; and (2) the transferred economic entity must retain its identity⁴. The Commission would also point out that it is for the national courts to determine whether there is a transfer and whether the entity retains its identity.

1 Directive 2008/94/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 on the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer, OJ L 283, 28.10.2008, p. 36.

2 Council Directive 2001/23/EC of 12 March 2001 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of undertakings, businesses or parts of undertakings or businesses, OJ L 82, 22.3.2001, p. 16.

3 Portuguese implementing provisions are, in principle, applicable to such transfers.

4 See for further information the Commission report on the Directive (COM(2007) 334 final).