The European Union should support struggling carmakers by helping them develop electric, hybrid and hydrogen vehicles, dpa quoted Industry Commissioner Antonio Tajani as saying today. Tajani was speaking ahead of a visit to Germany, where he is due to inspect Volkswagen's plant in Wolfsburg and discuss restructuring plans for Opel, a German-based General Motors (GM) subsidiary set to shed 8,300 of its 48,000 employees in Europe - 3,900 of them in Germany. "Today we have a short-term strategy to exit from the crisis, based on cash-for-clunkers schemes," he said, referring to subsidies paid to motorists to trade in their old cars for new ones. "That policy is about to end, and we need a new one to promote greener and less polluting cars," Tajani said in an interview with the German Press Agency, dpa. "We need to have by 2030 or 2035 an electric, hybrid or hydrogen car," he added. "Firms, universities and politicians need to have a research strategy to defend the car industry, which is a European industry not only for the internal market but also for exports to Russia, China, South America," Tajani stressed. The commissioner declined to comment on specifics of Opel's restructuring plan. "It's a decision that concerns the private sector, it's not a decision that concerns the commission. But we are following the issue," Tajani said. Germany is pondering over a GM request to provide 1.5 billion euros (2.1 billion dollars) to support Opel's relaunch, but the commission would have to declare whether it would be in line with the EU's rules on state aid. Tajani stressed that it was up to Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia to make the call, but added that he was going to Berlin "to listen" to what the German government had to say on the matter. In Berlin he is set to meet on Friday with the economics and transport ministers, Rainer Bruderle and Peter Ramsauer, as well as with the official responsible for EU affairs, Eckart von Klaeden.
