GM's retreat on Opel deal upsets Europe

General Motors' shock decision to pull out of a sale of its Opel/ Vauxhall unit triggered outrage and surprise from German government Wednesday and fresh uncertainty for the carmaker's 55,000 European workers.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had offered 4.5 billion euros ($6.6 billion) to sweeten the sale to Canada's Magna and Russia's Sberbank in an effort to save as many German jobs as possible.

German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said the decision was 'totally unacceptable," while the IG Metall union vowed national protests today.

'A company that needs 12 months to realize that its own subsidiary is capable of surviving and six months to decide whether it should be married off has already disqualified itself from being a responsible employer," said Armin Schild, from the union.

Merkel had lobbied hard for GM to sell to Magna, believing that the Canadian firm offered the best chance of Opel's 25,000 German workers keeping their jobs.

In a terse overnight statement, Merkel's spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, said Berlin wanted GM, majority owned by the US government since emerging from bankruptcy earlier this year, to pay back a 1.5 billion euro ($2.2 billion) loan made early this year and expiring at the end of November.

Meanwhile, the Russian government, shocked by the news, is preparing a legality check on the scrapping, said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The British government, always making no secret of its dislike of the deal at the begining, said it would 'work closely with GM to understand their plan for the business and what it means for the UK."

Polish Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak welcomed Wednesday the decision, saying the move was good for an Opel plant based in Poland.

With GM planning a 3-billion-euro ($4.4 billion) restructuring plan for its European business, however, the European Commission warned that state aid from EU countries under new restructuring plans would again have to meet stringent conditions.

Even so, it was clear that without Magna, large numbers of jobs were still set to go.

In Belgium, home to Opel's Antwerp plant, the head of the Flanders regional government called on GM to spell out where the axe would fall.

While the Spanish government voiced 'surprise" and is ready to negotiate with GM, the worried Spanish unions noted GM's decision was 'causing huge uncertainty" for Opel's more than 7,000 workers there.

AFP

Explore the World, Understand China!
Please log on www.gloaltimes.cn