EU wants to offer Finland €2.6M for laid-off Nokia workers

Despite what some people may think, it's not that bad to be an EU citizen, especially if you're working for Nokia and you get laid off. The Finnish company has gone through a complete restructuring process to fine tune its business, so many employees were laid off.

Now, the European Commission wants to offer Finland €2.6 million to support no less than 821 former Nokia Network Systems employees. The amount of money is meant to assist these workers who lost their jobs to help them find new ones.

Most of the money will be used for career coaching, education and start-up grants for the former Nokia employees. If Finland accepts, the money will come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EFG), and the country won't have to return it.

The funds are granted by EFG after Finland applied for the money the moment Nokia and three subcontractors had to lay off almost 1,000 employees, which was the result of “fierce competition between the Finnish ICT sector and its competitors.”

Finland has the right to refuse the money and ask for a larger amount. In any case, EU's decision to grant €2.6 million to Finland will certainly help many former Nokia employees get right back on track.