Brussels, 24/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 24 November, the EU Council of Ministers approved the decision to release aid of €24.5 million to help 3,582 French workers find work again after being made redundant by the Renault car manufacturer.
This aid is part of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) and was approved the previous day by the EP budgets committee. On 11 October, members of this committee decided not to approve the aid until they had received clarification regarding the effects of new legislation on pensions that had entered into force in France after a request had been made for EGF aid (EUROPE 10472). The redundancies have been particularly hard in three French regions: Île-de-France (53% of the redundancies), Haute-Normandie (29.5%) and Nord-Pas-de-Calais (12.5%). Dominique Riquet and Jean-Paul Gauzès (EPP, France) stated that they “are delighted with this result, which came about from constructive dialogue between the different political groups”. The budgets committee rejected an amendment submitted by Estelle Grelier and Frédéric Daerden, Socialist MEPs, which aimed to reduce the amount of aid requested by the French car manufacturer from €24.4 million to €17.4 million.
The EP budgets committee also approved EGF aid of €1.5 million for 726 workers in Portugal who lost their jobs in three companies making electric materials for cars. These companies are based in the Norte and Centro regions. The plenary vote in the Parliament regarding the French and Portuguese requests is planned for 1 December in Brussels. (LC/transl fl)