Frankfurt - Magna International, the designated buyer of General Motors' European arm, said Monday that up to 10,500 jobs could be axed on the continent, some 4,000 of them in Germany. "We have always spoken of 10,500 jobs in Europe, and 4,000 of these in Germany are seriously under threat," Magna chief executive Siegfried Wolf told a news conference in Frankfurt.
General Motors announced Thursday it would sell 55 per cent of its unprofitable European subsidiary Opel to the Canadian car parts manufacturer and its Russian partner Sberbank.
Germany is underwriting the deal with 4.5 euros (6.5 billion dollars) in loans and credit guarantees.
In addition to four plants in Germany, Opel has factories in Austria, Belgium, Poland and Spain as well as Britain where the cars are sold under the Vauxhall brand.
Some of these countries have expressed fears that plants outside Germany might lose out because Berlin was providing the bulk of financial support for a bailout announced last week.
Wolf said the factory in the Belgian city of Antwerp was the only one under threat of closure.
Germany is to host a meeting of European states with Opel factories to discuss the disbursement of state funds for restructuring measures, a government spokesman said Monday.
Spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the meeting would take place in Berlin on Tuesday.
Some 50,000 Opel workers are employed in Europe, half of them in Germany.
The EU Commission on Monday reminded the parties involved that any decision has to be in line with EU single market rules. These rules say governments cannot use state funds to save jobs in one country to the detriment of another.
Wilhelm said his government did not envisage any problems with the commission over the financial aspects of the rescue, which were in line with EU guidelines.
