Thursday May 28, 04:55 AM
Germany hits out at US attitude on Opel
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BERLIN, (AFP) - Germany hit out at the attitude of the US government and of General Motors (NYSE: GM - news) over the plight of its German unit Opel after all-night talks in Berlin on saving the automaker.
Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said that Berlin was "disappointed" and that there had been "unpleasant surprises" in the discussions.
"GM had surprises in store for us. We have made a fresh request to the US Treasury and we expect a response before Friday," Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told reporters.
Zu Guttenberg said that GM had requested an additional 300 million euros (415 million dollars) in state aid for Opel, which employs 25,000 people in Germany.
He also said that only Italy's Fiat (Milan: F.MI - news) and Canada's Magna remained in the running to buy a stake in GM Europe, which includes Opel in Germany as well as Vauxhall in Britain.
Fiat, Magna and Brussels-based RHJ International (Brussels: RHJI.BR - news) had last week filed expressions of interest with the German government, which is offering billions of euros in loan guarantees to keep the company afloat.
The German government came under pressure from other European countries on Wednesday, with Britain and Belgium pressing Berlin not to strike a deal that would protect German workers at the expense of GM Europe workers elsewhere.
The European Commission called for a meeting of European finance and industry ministers on the issue "as soon as possible."
Wednesday night's meeting, which included representatives from GM and the US government, was also aimed at agreeing on putting Opel in a trust to keep it operating with a 1.5-billion-euro (2.1-billion-dollar) government loan.
GM employs 55,000 people Europe-wide, including around 7,000 in Spain, 4,700 in Britain at Vauxhall, 4,000 in Sweden at Saab (Stockholm: SAABB.ST - news) , 3,600 in Poland, 2,600 in Belgium and 1,800 in Italy.
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