News

EU Competition Commissioner confirms that State Aid rules will be fairly applied in any support for GM/ Vauxhall

While the workers of GM’s Luton IBC plant still await confirmation of their future, Conservative MEP’s have been working behind the scenes to seek assurances that any state aid will be carefully and fairly applied - according to European regulations.

Several weeks ago when the Magna deal was still being considered, considerable concern was expressed by UK Unions and workers about subsidies and loans from the German government potentially influencing decisions about which GM operations would continue and where in Europe any redundancies would occur. 

The Conservative Eastern Region Members of the European Parliament (Vicky Ford, Robert Sturdy and Geoffrey Van Orden) wrote to the Commissioner expressing a concern that government support may influence GM’s decision making on grounds other than relative effiicency.  The EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, responded to the Conservative MEPs, saying:
“the Commission will undertake a careful examination regarding the conditions under which such support is granted.....Our underlying objective in such an examination will be to ensure that aid potentially granted to Opel/Vauxhall is consistent with State aid and internal market rules.”

Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Luton South, Nigel Huddleston said:
“A few weeks ago there was a particular concern that a generous German government loan may result in more jobs being protected in German factories while jobs may be lost at more efficient UK operations.  This letter provides some assurance that unfair or distorting state aid is unlikely to be allowed and should come as some relief to Luton IBC workers.”

Picture of Nigel with Vicky signing the 'I'm backing Luton workers' t-shirt at the GM stand at Party Conference