More than 2,000 workers made redundant in Greece and Ireland in 2014 will receive EU aid worth €11.3 million to help them find jobs, Parliament decided on Wednesday. The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) aid has already been approved by the EU Council of Ministers.

Greek broadcaster and publisher: €8.7 million

Athens-based Attica Broadcasting and Attica Publishing made 1,633 workers redundant when the crisis forced Greek households to reduce spending on non-essentials, including television subscriptions and newspapers. Newspapers lost 60% of their subscribers from 2009 to 2013, and mass media firms lost half their key source of revenue as advertisers withdrew.

MEPs approved the Greek authorities’ requests for aid to complement their own efforts to re-train and find jobs for the laid-off workers. The €5.04 million EGF aid application for the broadcaster is the first in the mass media sector, while the €3.75 million one for the publisher is the second in the publishing sector.

Irish aircraft repair shop: €2.5 million

The Irish subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik, an aircraft maintenance and repair firm in south-east Ireland, closed when its operation proved costly and its customers switched to new technologies. Its business repairing and trading in mostly classic engines and their spare parts was pushed out by the arrival of a new generation of aircraft increasingly manufactured and serviced in Asia. With the recent closure of several similar companies in Ireland, its former workers face considerable difficulties in finding jobs.

At the company and its two subsidiaries, 450 people were made redundant, prompting the Irish authorities to request €2.5 million in EGF aid to help retrain workers, put them through higher education or help them set up their own firms.

Background

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund was set up to provide additional support for workers made redundant as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation or the financial crisis and to help them find new jobs. From 2014 to 2020, the annual ceiling of the fund is €150 million.

Redundant workers are offered measures such as support for business start-ups, job-search assistance, occupational guidance and various kinds of training. In most cases, national authorities have already begun taking measures and have their costs reimbursed by the EU when their applications are finally approved.