EU Budgets Committee okays aid to Spanish textile workers

04 Mar '14

2 min read

European Parliament’s Budgets Committee has approved the plan to provide aid worth €840,000 to unemployed textile workers in Spain’s Valencia region to help them find new jobs under the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF).

However, the aid still has to be approved by Parliament as a whole and the Council of Ministers, according to an official press release.

The EGF aid would help to pay for measures such as individual counselling, vocational training, help in setting up a private business or intensive job-search assistance for 300 of the 560 workers made redundant by 198 textile firms.

This aid would meet half the cost of a €1.68 million aid package, while the remaining half would be met by Spain.

The redundancies are the result of major structural changes in world trade patterns, especially due to competition from China and other Far Eastern countries. The redundancies further aggravate unemployment in the region, which has already grown from 9.61 percent in the first quarter of 2008 to 29.1 percent in the first quarter of 2013.

Commenting on Spanish application for EGF aid earlier this year, EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion László Andor commented: “Workers in the Spanish textile industry have been hard hit by rising global competition and the economic crisis. The Spanish labour market is particularly challenging, but I am convinced that the proposed support from EGF would help the workers who lost their jobs to find new opportunities.”

The textile manufacturing sector has been the subject of 11 EGF aid applications, six of which were from the Valenciana region.

The EGF contributes to packages of tailor-made services to help redundant workers find new jobs. The annual ceiling of the fund is €500 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 started the measures and will get their costs reimbursed by the EU when their applications are finally approved.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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