BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- The European Commission on Wednesday approved the British government's plan to give a training grant of 8.7 million pounds ($17.4 million) to General Motors' Vauxhall unit.
EU regulators said their investigation into the payment had eliminated fears that public funds were being used to give the company ''windfall profits'' and save it from using its own money to train workers.
European governments can only subsidize training that benefits the wider economy, and not tasks that the company would usually pay for itself.
The money will help fund a new 2007-2012 training program planned to improve productivity at the Ellesmere Port plant near Liverpool. The British government had promised to subsidize the plan to help keep the factory running after GM cut 900 jobs there in 2006.
