Brussels, 29/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 29 October the European Commission approved three requests for the award of aid from the European Globalisation Fund (EGF), two of which are from Spain. The new aid will go to help workers made redundant from textile and construction industries and retail. The third request is from Poland, to help former car industry workers. The requests will now be submitted for approval to the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers.
The €3,482,316 requested by the Spanish government will be used to help some 350 redundant textile industry workers (out of a total of 544 laid off from 143 companies) and some 300 workers who previously cut, shaped and finished stone for construction (out of a total of 528 laid off from 66 companies). “All these redundancies occurred in the Spanish province of Alicante in sectors that are not linked, which proves that the impact of the financial and economic crisis on employment is ever more widespread”, said EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor. Some €2,059,466 of the total package will be used to help redundant textile workers and the remaining €1,422,850 to help the redundant construction workers.
A second amount of aid, of €1,560,000, has been requested by the Spanish government to help 1,154 redundant workers from shops in the region of Aragón to find work following redundancy due to a slowing of the economy which has hit shopkeepers hard. The workers were laid off from 593 small and medium-sized retail companies.
The €633,077 requested by Poland is to help 590 of 1,104 workers laid off by two car wiring and cable bundle manufacturers (SEWS Polska Sp. z o.o. and Leoni Autokabel Polska Sp. z o.o) in the Greater Poland region (Wielkopolskie) in the west of the country to find work. They were laid off as a result of the economic crisis, that has seen falling demand for vehicles and spare parts. The production of private cars and heavy goods vehicles in the first half of 2009 was only 48.7% and 27% respectively of the levels seen in the same period of 2008. (O.L. trans fl)