Germany said Monday it wants a GM executive to come to Berlin this week to discuss the fate of its European unit Opel, after the US firm failed to choose a buyer as Chancellor Angela Merkel had hoped. "Our aim is to organise this week a meeting in Berlin with a representative from General Motors' board," government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm told a regular government briefing.
"We will then attempt to clear up any open questions in a constructive manner." He stressed however that despite Merkel expressing her disappointment at the failure of GM's board to select a buyer for Opel on Friday, there was no spat with the US government, which owns a majority stake in GM following the firm's bankruptcy in June. "There are constant contacts with representatives of the US government... parallel to the talks with GM," Wilhelm said.
"We have always managed to avoid any tensions in our transatlantic relations. The relations between the two governments are good and unaffected." Germany, where around half of GM's 50,000 employees in Europe work, had hoped that GM executives would choose on Friday an offer for Opel from Canadian auto parts maker Magna and state-owned Russian lender Sberbank. GM's board is widely believed to prefer a rival bid from Brussels-based investment group RHJ International.
But during a telephone conference, GM's board stopped short of making a decision either way because it had identified "a few issues where there was a need for further clarification," Wilhelm said. Berlin has offered 4.5 billion euros (6.4 billion dollars) worth of financing to support an Opel sale, but only for Magna, to the annoyance of other European governments such as Britain.