The EU’s executive has called for a meeting between EU member states affected by General Motors’ financial problems amid growing concerns over GM’s financial crisis.
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“Member states where we have GM sites in Europe should hold an extraordinary meeting and reflect on the way we want to react,” EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said.
“I would like to know what the different member states that have GM sites are considering doing,” he said, adding that he also wanted “any actions in Europe to be coordinated and that it’s not each for himself.”
GM revealed yesterday that its own auditors harbour ‘substantial doubt’ about the company’s ability to survive.
GM COO Fritz Henderson warned in Geneva this week that its European operations will run out of cash in a matter of weeks without assistance.
Doubts over GM’s future and the fate of its plants in Europe have deepened the sense of crisis in Brussels.
“The way the American mother company is dealing with the issue of Europe is not acceptable,” EU Industry Commissioner, Guenter Verheugen told a news conference after a meeting of EU industry ministers, Reuters reported.
“Enough is enough. We expect GM to disclose everything. What are their plans with their European daughter companies and locations? What are they doing with property rights, and especially is GM prepared to maintain responsibility for the European companies or not?” Verheugen said.
Reuters reported that Verheugen wants a ‘common analysis’ of the GM crisis to avoid unilateral measures that could have harmful repercussions elsewhere in Europe.
“GM haven’t been a good owner [of Saab],” Swedish Industry Minister Maud Olofsson said on a visit to Brussels.
“They haven’t developed new cars or new technology. The best thing I could see is a new investor with a new business plan,” Olofsson said.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Opel unit should seriously think about the possibility of filing for insolvency as such a move could help the company protect its business assets, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told Handelsblatt newspaper.
“I think, one should seriously consider applying insolvency law in cases such as Opel,” he said.
“Our modern insolvency law is not geared toward destruction but preserving economic assets.”
