Brussels, 14/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 14 July, the European Commission proposed earmarking €6.2 million for Belgium from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) and €6.9 million from the same fund for Germany.
Germany applied for support from the EGF following the dismissal of 2,881 workers by Adam Opel AG and one of its suppliers. These job losses were the result of the shutdown of the Opel production plant in Bochum, triggered by the drop in demand over the period of 2007 to 2013, as a consequence of the global economic and financial crisis. The EGF has just provided support to 2,692 of these redundant workers.
Belgium applied for support from the EGF following the final shutdown of the Ford production plant in Genk and the subsequent dismissal of 5,111 workers in Ford and eleven of its suppliers and downstream producers. These redundancies were the result of a significant loss of market share of the EU automotive industry within the past decade. This application covers the redundancies at the Ford Genk plant in 2014.
It is now up to the European Parliament and the Council of the EU to examine these requests for support. (Jan Kordys)