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EU Parliament approves €18.4 million allocation for fighting unemployment

Germany, Denmark and Finland will get financial aid

© EPA/PATRICK SEEGER

STRASBOURG, December 10. /ITAR-TASS /. Germany, Denmark and Finland should receive €18.4 million as aid for fighting unemployment. The corresponding decision was made on Tuesday at the European Parliament plenary session in Strasbourg.

Funds will be allocated from the European Globalization Adjustment Fund. Thus, according to parliamentarians, “the authorities of these countries will be able to create jobs for more than five thousand people who lost their jobs due to the impact of globalization and economic turmoil in Europe.”

These are, in particular, over 600 workers fired by the leadership of Danish wind farms manufacturer Vestas Group after the demand fell and competition from Chinese producers increased. Danes should receive financial assistance in the amount of €6.3 million.

According to the approved directive, once a global leader in mobile phones production — the Finnish company Nokia —will be able to get €9.8 million from the fund. After Nokia’s sales fell, the company had to move its manufacturing and assembly facilities to Asia in order to save money and fire more than 4.5 thousand people.

Deputies also allowed providing financial support in the amount of €2.3 million for German company First Solar Manufacturing, which specializes in manufacturing equipment for solar energy. In 2012, it was forced to close two plants and lay off nearly 960 workers due to a sharp fall in prices for such products.

The size of European Globalization Adjustment Fund is €500 million (refilled every year). It was created in 2006 to assist companies working on individual orders that because of this lost competition to transnational corporations in a globalized market.

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