General Electric could lay off 2,570 workers at its Hungarian lighting division over the next 2 years, the US-based maker of electrical products and jet engines announced early last week as cited by Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) reported. The European director of GE Lighting, Phil Marshall, told reporters in Budapest that for now the decision remains a recommendation, pending talks with unions, the local news agency MTI reported. The planned layoffs would include the complete closure of a GE factory in Vac that employs 700, and 1,300 of 1,750 jobs at a plant in Nagykanizsa. The production hall in Nagykanizsa, where GE makes industrial filters, will also go out of business at the end of January 2010, with 128 people losing their jobs there, The proposed downsizing of GE’s Hungarian operation is a response to a recent European Union directive that outlaws traditional tungsten light bulbs in favour of more energy-efficient fluorescent types. GE currently employs 14,000 workers in Hungary in sectors as diverse as energy, aviation, health care, water management and electronics.