€500m EC fund for workers hit by moves

THE European Commission announced plans yesterday for an annual €500 million fund to help workers left unemployed by restructuring due to globalisation.

Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said the aid scheme was meant to soften the blow of restructuring due to increased global competition across the EU.

It was also to “express the union’s solidarity toward those severely and personally affected by trade-adjustment redundancies”. Mr Barroso said the fund would help boost job growth in Europe.