European Union state aid rules should be used in a flexible nature in order to boost the EU’s car industry, a leading financial figure said today.
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French economy minister Christine Lagarde was quoted by Reuters saying: “We are going to compare what we are doing in our respective territories. We are going to see what we can do to improve the situation and to use flexibility in state aid.”
She made the comments following a meeting with other EU country ministers and the EU’s industry commissioner, Guenter Verheugen, to discuss the ailing auto industry.
Earlier today, Verheugen described the situation the car industry faces in Europe as “brutal”.
“The outlook for the industry is, to say the least, brutal. We have seen a dramatic decrease of car sales, especially in the last quarter of 2008 with a drop of more than 20%, and we expect another drop of 20 percent for 2009 that will affect hundred of thousands if not millions of workers,” Verheugen said.
“There is no guarantee that all the main European manufacturers can survive the crisis,” he added.
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