Tens of thousands of workers were helped to retrain, look for a new job or launch a new company in 207-2013 if they had been laid off as a result of globalisation or the economic crisis thanks to €400 million in EU funding. This aid came from the EU’s Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF). On 11 September the EP’s budget committee approved another aid package for workers in Greece, the Netherlands, Romania and Spain. 

Since 2007 the fund has received more than 100 applications from 20 EU countries asking for it to co-finance support programmes for more than 100,000 workers who lost their jobs due to globalisation (56%) or as a result of the global economic and financial crisis (44%).

Many requests concerned redundancies in car manufacturing (22.5%), machinery and equipment (13.5%), textile, wearing apparel and shoe manufacture (12%), computers, mobile phones and ICT (11.6%) as well construction (9.6%).

The budget committee’s approval of aid to redundant workers in Spain, Netherlands, Romania and Greece will be put to a plenary vote on Wednesday 17 September.