Plants in Italy and Britain will bear the brunt of job cuts if Fiat carries through its plan to merge with General Motors Europe, a German newspaper was set to report Wednesday according to dpa. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung quoted what it described as a "top secret" Fiat internal strategy report dated April 3 with the title "Project Football" which detailed the cost-cutting that would follow the merger. This would include closing Fiat plants at Pomigliano in southern Italy and Termini Inerese in Sicily with a total loss of 6,200 jobs. In addition, Vauxhall factories in the English towns of Luton and Ellesmere Port and an Opel plant in the Belgian city of Antwerp would be shuttered with a combined loss of 6,100 jobs, the newspaper said. Opel and Vauxhall are GM Europe's two car brands. Fresh from its effective takeover of Chrysler, Fiat approached the German government this week to take over loss-making GM Europe.
