EU to help soften blow of VW redundancies

The European commission says it will propose a series of measures to help soften the blow of thousands of job cuts announced by Volkswagen.

The carmaker has announced that it will end production of the Golf compact car at its Brussels factory, leading to 3600 redundancies at the Belgian site.

The news was greeted with shock and anger in Brussels, with workers demonstrating and Belgian premier Guy Verhofstadt declaring that “I am disappointed to see that national interests are basically the reason for this decision”.

VW will keep 1500 workers at the Brussels factory to build the Polo car, while the Golf will be made at the carmaker’s two plants in Germany.

Danuta Hübner and Vladimir Spidla, the commissioners for regions and employment, immediately said they “hope to propose a package of measures within European Cohesion policy which will help to re-train those who lose their job, help those who want to create their own business and help supplier businesses to re-orient to new markets”.

Hübner added that she wants to see the European Investment Bank involved in the talks, “with a view to the deployment of loan finance”.

The commission has granted Belgium €1.1bn in the last six years for re-qualification and training through the European Social Fund.

The commissioners were keen to point out that “supporting workers in transition” and “helping them with active labour policies to get another job” are “the essence of the much debated flexicurity approach”.

The topic is high on the commission’s agenda, with Spidla set to present the final version of his green paper on labour law on Wednesday.

Brussels is trying to relaunch workers' rights for the 21st century with a combination of economic flexibility and worker protection - "flexicurity".

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