State-owned bank ABN Amro has applied for a €5.2 million grant from the European globalisation fund, the NRC reports.

The bank, which was nationalised in 2008, wants to use the money to help workers who will lose their jobs through the ABN Amro and Fortis merger to find new work.
If the bank gets the EU cash, the government as sole shareholder will also have to pay €2.8m towards the project, the paper says.
Some 4,500 jobs are set to disappear at the combined bank.
Mass lay-offs
The EU fund was set up in 2007 to help companies which were forced to make mass lay-offs because of globalisation. Its remit has now been widened to include firms hit by the recession. To qualify, at least 500 jobs must be under threat.
The NRC says this is the first time a bank has applied for help from the fund. It also points out that the Dutch government opposed the fund’s creation.
ABN Amro’s application was made in October 2009 but has only just now come to light.
Arm’s length
Meanwhile, the Financieele Dagblad reports that MP and ministers want to continue to have a say in the bank’s wages policy and its eventual sale, once it becomes an arms-length company.
ABN Amro and insurance group ASR are soon to be run by independent trust offices at arms length from the finance ministry.
Finance minister Jan Kees de Jager is due to report on the new government’s exit strategy for the bank by the end of December, the paper says.