Last month, the Dutch tyre factory Apollo Vredestein announced that at least 750 full-time jobs were scrapped. Production will be relocated to Hungary. Reason: Dutch labour costs are too high, in Hungary they are considerably lower.

In addition, the Hungarian government has provided a further subsidy of almost EUR 100 million for the construction of the new plant.

Dozens of companies with cheap working conditions and generous (EU) subsidies have been lured to Central and Eastern Europe at the expense of jobs in the West. An inevitable side effect of the free market?

In Enschede, nearly a thousand jobs are at risk because tyre manufacturer Apollo Vredestein moves its production to Hungary. In addition, labour costs are lower and the manufacturer received almost EUR 100 million subsidy for the construction of a new plant.
In a few years, the Netherlands already lost tens of thousands of jobs due to relocation of production abroad; mostly to low-cost countries elsewhere in Europe. Companies sometimes threaten to leave abroad if employees do not agree to poorer working conditions.
In order to attract businesses, governments in Central and Eastern Europe deliberately keep labour costs low. They distribute generous subsidies and show off European Union funds. Especially in the automotive industry, this led to major shifts in the European labour market.

The European Commission has already blocked hundreds of millions of euros of unauthorised state aid. But the Hungarian subsidy to Apollo was approved.
Due to the corona crisis, companies also see disadvantages of outsourcing and relocating #productieprocessen - Yes. This probably does not lead to the recovery of jobs, but to more automation.

No more buy Vredestein tires?

The free market in Europe