Almost €15 million in financial assistance for workers who have been made redundant due to their employers closing has been approved.

The European Parliament's Budgets Committee voted in favor of aid to workers in the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Denmark.

Applications were submitted to the European Union (EU) Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for the grants, which will go to help individuals who lost their jobs when electronics firm Qimonda in Portugal, NXL Semiconductors in the Netherlands, car manufacturing firms in Spain and machinery equipment producers in Denmark went under.

A total of 3,731 workers are expected to benefit from the EU funding, which must still be granted approval by the full Parliament and the region's Council of Ministers before it is finalized.

The EGF was created in order to provide those who have lost their jobs due to changing world trade patters as a result of the financial markets crisis and globalization.

Posted by Alex Donnell