The Netherlands receives €220 million in EU recovery package

This year the Netherlands was granted 220 million euros from the European Union to support vulnerable people in the job market during the pandemic. Starting on Monday, labor market regions can apply for subsidies to help fund projects surrounding training initiatives to help return people to work.

The 35 labor market regions can use funding to retrain vulnerable workers from sectors with little opportunity to other sectors where they have a better outlook. The support package is also intended to help guide students in practical schooling or secondary education to finding a spot on the job market.

Due to the pandemic, the European Commission released a recovery package to members of the EU. This includes the REACT-EU an instrument which added 220 million euros to the national European Social Funds program.

The recovery package is intended as an addition to already existing relief packages such as the NOW-, TOZO- and TONK-scheme and the social package targeted towards the prevention of youth unemployment. For this social package the Cabinet released 1.4 billion euros last year.