Opel fiasco highlights Europe's weaknesses

The left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung suspects that the European Commission was secretly delighted when US carmaker General Motors stopped the sale of Opel to Magna last week: "Because there are Opel plants in several EU countries and consequently diverging national interests are at play here, the commissioners were suddenly in a situation where they couldn't please one without disgruntling the other. They were at pains to assure everyone that they would make sure any deal strictly adhered to the rules of Europe's single market but in reality they confined themselves to waiting to receive information about the sale. The one thing they wanted to avoid was having to approve the deal themselves. So the news that the US company General Motors itself had called off the sale of its European Opel plants to the Magna investors just before the contract was signed must have been received with a great sense of relief in Brussels. [EU Competition Commissioner Neelie] Kroes can now go on simply assuring everyone that she will only approve the new deal if it is in accordance with European competition laws." 

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