The Official Journal of the European Union has published the authorisation for State aid for UK and Belgium in the cases of Vauxhall Motors Ltd and Volvo Cars in Gent.

Vauxhall Motors Ltd

The aid recipient is Vauxhall Motors Ltd, Ellesmere Port, UK (Vauxhall), a car manufacturing plant which is an operating unit of Vauxhall Motors Ltd and part of GM. It manufactures cars from the Opel model range (which are sold in the United Kingdom under the Vauxhall badge), currently the Astra which will terminate in 2009. Vauxhall is located in Ellesmere Port in Cheshire in the North-West region of England and employs close to 2,200 workers.

The aid is to be given in the form of a direct grant of GBP 8,784,767 payable in six yearly instalments over the duration of the training programme. The aid is to be implemented as an individual aid from the North West Regional Development Agency (Renaissance House, Centre Park, Warrington WA1 1XB).

Volvo Cars Gent

The beneficiary of the aid would be VCG. This firm has been part of the Ford Motor Company (FMC) since 1999  and employs 5,000 people. The training programme supported runs between September 2006 and September 2009 and is partially linked to the introduction of a new production platform — the European EUCD platform — which is the FMC standard for the production of mid-size vehicles (segments C and D of the car market). The introduction of this new platform will represent tangible investment of EUR 26,3 million. It will allow the plant to produce not only Volvo models, but also Ford and Jaguar models. Improving the plant’s flexibility in this way will contribute to anchoring Ford’s activities in Ghent and safeguarding jobs there. The total aid to be given and agreed by the EC competence services will be EUR 3,538,580.57.

Legal basics

• COMMISSION DECISION of 16 April 2008 on State aid C 23/07 (ex N 118/07) which the United Kingdom is planning to implement for Vauxhall Motors Ltd.
• COMMISSION DECISION of 11 March 2008 on the State aid which Belgium is planning to implement for Volvo Cars Gent (C 35/07 (ex N 256/07)).