BRUSSELS

The European Parliament approved an economic aid package Wednesday to help redundant media workers in Greece.

In a statement, the parliament said “550 media workers dismissed by three publishing companies will receive EU aid worth €2,308,500 [$2,628,402] to help them find new jobs”.

“The aid will be used to finance a series of measures co-financed by the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. These measures will help the 550 workers find new jobs by providing them with occupational guidance, training, retraining and vocational training, specific advice towards entrepreneurship, contributions to business start-ups and a variety of allowances. All the redundant workers are expected to participate in the measures.”

The aid was approved by the Budget Committee by 28 votes to 3 with no abstentions.

To take effect, the aid also needs to be approved by a plenary vote in the parliament slated for Nov. 29 and by the European Council, the statement said.

“Over the period 2011-2017, daily and periodical press sales plummeted in Greece. Newspaper sales fell from 144 million copies in 2011 to 57 million in 2017 and magazine sales fell from 60 million copies to 23 million,” it added.

Reporting by Ata Ufuk Seker:Writing by Handan Kazanci