EU job-search aid for former metal and car workers in Belgium, France and Spain | WPN World People News

About 2,800 former workers at firms producing various metals in Spain, steel in Belgium, and cars in France and Belgium will get EU aid to help them find new jobs after Parliament approved the applications on Tuesday. The requests for European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid, together amounting to €15.2 million, also need to be approved by the EU Council of Ministers.

Declining metal output in Valenciana

Over 600 jobs were lost at 142 metal producing firms in the Spanish region of Comunidad Valenciana, due to shrinking demand for metal products and a general decline in metal production. Across the region, 43% of metal workers' jobs disappeared as metal product manufacturing declined by 36.6% between 2008 and 2013.

Spain applied for EGF aid to help 300 of the redundant workers and was granted aid worth €1.019 million.

Parliament approved the aid for Comunidad Valenciana by 589 votes to 72, with 10 abstentions.

Belgian steel sector: €911,934 for 752 people

Of the 939 workers made redundant by Belgian crude steel producer Carsid SA, 752 are eligible for EGF aid totalling €911,934. Operating in the former coal mining and steel making area around Charleroi, Carsid was hit by the decline in the EU share of the world crude steel market and by waning demand for steel in the automotive and construction sectors. The redundancies aggravate unemployment in an area where it stood at 21.5% in 2012, almost double the national rate of 11.2%.

Parliament approved the aid for Carsid SA by 595 votes to 84, with 9 abstentions.

Carmaker closures in east-Belgium

Ford Genk and ten of its suppliers have made 512 workers redundant in a first wave of redundancies leading up to the planned closure of the plant at the end of 2014. There are to be two further waves of redundancies, totalling over 7,000, before the plant ceases production altogether. The shutdown is due to a decline in passenger car production and in sales of new cars in the European Union.

Of the 512 workers made redundant in the first wave 479 would qualify for EGF aid worth €570,945.

Parliament approved the aid for Ford Genk by 593 votes to 84, with 10 abstentions.

French carmaker: €12.7 million for 2,357 people

France applied for EGF aid when car maker PSA made over 6,000 workers redundant at its plants in Aulnay (Ile de France) and Rennes (Brittany), citing rapid growth in Asian carmakers’ world market share, which now stands at 47%, and a 25% decline in Western Europe’s car output between 2000 and 2012.

Of the redundant workers, 2,357 are eligible to receive the aid, which totals €12.7 million.

Source: European Parliament