Brussels, 13/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - It was in an effort to protect the interests of certain workers made redundant by the Renault car manufacturer, French socialists blocked the request for a €24.5 million subsidy from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). This rejection came at the European Parliament budget committee on Tuesday 11 October. A press release entitled “The French Right defends the interests of Renault shareholders, the Socialists defend the interests of the workers” was published on Thursday 13 October. It comes in response to accusations made by the French minister for European affairs, Jean Leonetti, on Wednesday 12 October, which described the attitude of Socialist MEPs as absurd and hypocritical, after the vote in the Parliamentary committee (EUROPE 10472). In a joint statement on Thursday 13 October, French MEPs Pervenche Berès and Estelle Grelier, and Belgian MEP Frédéric Daerden, all three from the S&D group, railed against such treatment of this issue and explained that the vote blocking the EGF subsidy was entirely because the Renault group was unwilling to compromise. The French trade union (CGT) informed French MEPs that the situation for certain workers (their number varies between 70 and 1000, depending on who is giving the information) was difficult because they had agreed to early retirement as part of a voluntary redundancy plan proposed by the carmaker but were ultimately denied a full pension due to amendments to French legislation in 2010. They have subsequently suffered a “double whammy” and have been unable to fully benefit from the agreement obtained in 2009, while suffering from the constraints of the new law, which changed the retirement age from 60 to 62. Despite attempts at conciliation before the vote, MEPs from the S&D in the budgets committee had to deal with, “a position that had not changed one iota” from the Renault group, explained the press release. This had subsequently prompted the rejection from EGF aid. (JK/transl.fl)