French climbdown on state aid

[ibis]

Sarkozy appears to be withdrawing his 'protectionist' plans for state aid to French car makers:

The sting was drawn from this summit by the apparent French climbdown over its plans to link state aid to car plants, to putting firms on French soil first. Not that President Nicolas Sarkozy seemed that apologetic - more annoyed that he had been singled out for harsh words.

"Take my friend Gordon Brown - and you know how much I trust him - who owns 70% of a bank. Seventy per cent! It's nationalisation. So explain where is the logic in saying there's no problem when a state takes 70% of a bank but helping manufacturers to get credit, that is a problem. Who says Gordon Brown is a protectionist ? Who would say such nonsense? Nobody is a protectionist in Europe, nobody !"

...while General Motors Europe would like a bailout:

The European divisions of General Motors (GM) could collapse within weeks without European governments' help, GM's top executive has warned.

Chief operating officer Fritz Henderson said governments should step in immediately to ensure GM Europe does not run out of money by April or May.

It could help prevent some 300,000 jobs from being lost, Mr Henderson said.

He wants governments to put up 3.3bn euros ($4.2bn, £2.9bn) to finance the separation of Opel and Vauxhall.

Source

Hmm. Should Europe bail out a US company?

[locke]

GM is beyond a joke at this point and no amount of money thrown at it is going to save the company.

If Europe is to get involved in GM, it should only be to help them sell their European brands.

Similarly, the US government should move on to looking at which parts can be saved and stop trying to save the entire company.

[MacCoise]

Ah, state aid regulations, a very good example of why Lisbon is now irrelevant.

[locke]

GM have just issued a press release doubting their own ability to be a going concern.

Seriously, in both Europe and America, it's time to start looking at what parts of the business can be salvaged and then looking for buyers.