Merkel sees "good prospects" for German Opel plants

25 November 2009 @ 05:57 pm EDT

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday she saw "good prospects" for Opel's German plants after the carmaker's parent, General Motors, presented a restructuring plan for its European unit.

Workers leave the Opel plant after shift change in Bochum early September 10, 2009. General Motors shook up its management and dispatched a negotiator on the sale of its Opel unit to Berlin after a watershed two-day board meeting under the direction of Chairman Ed Whitacre. GM's 13-member board endorsed the departure of GM's chief financial officer, a new marketing campaign aimed at winning back skeptical U.S. consumers and a still-sealed decisio...

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Germany will take the brunt of the roughly 9,000 job cuts that GM envisions as it reorganises its European arm Opel, GM's acting head of European operations said earlier on Wednesday.

"I hear from General Motors that they of course want the German plants to be restructured but (that they are) giving all plants good prospects," Merkel told reporters before meeting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero near Berlin.

She added that GM's restructuring plan was similar to that put forward by a Russian-backed group led by Magna International, which had been poised to take over Opel before GM backtracked on talks about such a sale.

"In qualitative terms it is very similar to the earlier plans," Merkel said.

Acting GM Europe head Nick Reilly said earlier the U.S carmaker had earmarked 50-60 percent of the 9,000 job cuts for Germany.

Merkel sees "good prospects" for German Opel plants

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