Renault is moving the Clio Campus production line from Slovenia to the Paris region, after receiving state aid in exchange for a pledge to protect French jobs, a union official has said.
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Renault subsequently said in a statement: “[We] will increase production of Twingo and Clio cars to meet demand boosted by the scrapping bonus. This will lead to adjustments in production at the Flins site in France (Clio III) and at Novo mesto in Slovenia (Clio Campus, Twingo).
“From June to October 2009, the Flins plant will resume production of Clio Campus models, in addition to Clio III, enabling Novo mesto to assemble more Twingo models.
“It is a Slovenian production line,” Fabien Gache, CGT union leader at Renault, earlier told Europe 1 radio, according to Reuters, referring to the Campus line relocation. “It would be appear to be a line that produces the Clio II model,” he added.
Like Peugeot, Renault tends to keep cheaper versions of a previous model line in production alongside the redesigned update; the Campus is a variant of the previous generation Clio II.
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By GlobalDataEarlier a junior government minister for industry Luc has told the radio Renault would announce today it was bringing a foreign production line back to France, saying the move would create 400 jobs at the Flins plant near Paris.
President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier agreed to lend PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault EUR3bn (US$4.1bn) each in exchange for a promise not to close French factories or dismiss French workers.
Reuters noted that the measures sparked an initial outcry over protectionism but Brussels bureaucrats later said they were satisfied the French plan upheld European Union trade rules.
