§ 25. Mr. Roy Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he is satisfied that the European Community institutions are paying full regard to the high level of unemployment in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. AlisonYes. There can be no doubt that assistance from the European Community makes a significant contribution to promoting training and employment opportunities in this country.
The European social fund is the main Community instrument concerned with labour market matters, and provides grants in respect of training and employment schemes. In addition, the European Coal and Steel Community provides reconversion loans for projects which will employ redundant coal and steel workers, and readaption grants for redundancy payments and retraining schemes for former coal and steel workers. The European regional development fund and European Investment Bank provide finance in the form of grants and loans for investment and development projects in the assisted areas.
The total amount of assistance allocated to the United Kingdom under these various instruments in 1981 was some £611 million.