Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed support for a Russia-backed bid to buy carmaker Opel on Thursday and said her government aimed to clear up outstanding questions in the next few days.
She told reporters after meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev that the two were working together on Opel’s future and that Canadian supplier Magna’s bid, backed by state bank Sberbank, had benefits.
“There are still a number of questions to be cleared up. But the Magna concept offers excellent starting points,” Merkel said at a joint news conference with Medvedev.
“It offers Opel a chance and also creates the possibility of establishing a strategic partnership in the car sector with Russia,” she said. “That’s why we are doing all we can to resolve the remaining questions … and we are counting on Magna to do its bit.”
The race for Opel, a European unit of General Motors, is heating up. While Magna is in talks about taking a stake, other contenders have also emerged, including Belgium-based industrial investment company RHJ International and Chinese carmaker BAIC.
Earlier, several sources familiar with the situation said BAIC had lost ground to rivals Magna and RHJ.
While BAIC has not officially withdrawn from the race, RHJ and Magna are expected to submit binding contracts in just a matter of days and a decision could come shortly afterward.
Medvedev, who backs the Magna-Sberbank plans, said he hoped the deal would come to fruition.
“We are looking at the project with interest and optimism. We will try to make progress in realizing it,” he said.
Merkel also offered support to Medvedev over the Nord Stream pipeline project. The Nord Stream consortium aims to bring 55 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Germany and on to other European Union countries each year across the Baltic seabed from 2011.
But the timetable looks uncertain as some states are worried that the pipeline may damage the environment, especially as it would pass close to dumped munitions from the two world wars.
“We will do everything we can to get the approvals that are needed,” said Merkel, adding that progress had been made with Finland but that the consortium was still waiting for Sweden.
Medvedev called on Sweden to clear the project, arguing that it could contribute to European energy security.
He also cast doubt on the planned Nabucco pipeline, designed to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, a project Merkel defended. The 7.9 billion euro ($11 billion) Nabucco project bypasses Russia and Ukraine.
“If Nabucco gets gas, then it means someone needs it,” Medvedev said after the two leaders met for talks near Munich. “But so far no one has been able to explain to me where the gas will come from,” he said.
“I’m among those who don’t think of this project in oppositional terms,” Merkel told reporters. “I think Nord Stream is one project, Nabucco is another.”
(Reuters, Bloomberg)
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