Brussels - General Motors is to present a restructuring plan for its European subsidiary this week, officials said Monday after holding talks in Brussels aimed at averting a "subsidies war" between the five European Union countries which host Opel plants. Kris Peeters, the premier of the Belgian Flanders region where Opel's Antwerp factory is located, said such a plan would then be discussed by European officials on December 4.
The restructuring plan, worth 3.3 billion euros (4.9 billion dollars), envisages thousands of job cuts at Opel factories in Germany, Belgium, Spain and Poland, as well as at Vauxhall in Britain.
"We do have a plan, and we are convinced that this plan is the right concept for Opel/Vauxhall's future," Opel interim Chief Executive Nick Reilly said after the talks in Brussels.
"The implementation of the plan will be based on economic criteria and not be impacted by any government's decision to what extent they support the plan," Reilly said.
The meeting in Brussels was convened by the European Commission following reports that governments were rushing to offer generous subsidies or tax breaks to GM Europe to persuade it not to cut jobs at home.
According to German news magazine Der Spiegel, Belgium has offered up to 500 million euros to GM to prevent from closing down its unprofitable Antwerp factory, where 2,580 workers make Opel's popular Astra model. Similar offers have been made by the other Opel nations.
About half of Opel's 50,000-strong workforce is in Germany.
"It was agreed that any financial support by one or more Member States should be based strictly on objective and economic criteria, and not include non-commercial conditions concerning the location of investments and/or the geographic distribution of restructuring measures," the EU executive said in a statement.
"This is essential to avoid subsidy races between Member States and the fragmentation of the Single Market," the statement said.
The commission had criticised previous plans by Germany to provide state guarantees to Opel in connection with a planned sale of the concern to the Magna consortium. Such state aid was thought to be conditional on GM preserving jobs in Germany.
During Monday's talks, government officials re-affirmed their commitment to the EU's single market rules and vowed to refrain from taking any national measures "without prior information and coordination with other involved countries and the Commission," the EU executive said.
