Rover: EU seeks facts

BRUSSELS - The British Government has provided the EU with some details of an emergency aid package for carmaker MG Rover, but has not filed a full notification of the rescue plan, according to a European Commission spokesman.

EU competition spokesman Jonathan Todd said the EU executive had not decided whether the 6.5 million ($17.3 million) loan constituted illegal state aid.

He said the British Government sent the commission an email on Tuesday giving some "useful" preliminary information about the money paid, but the Brussels Executive was still waiting for formal notification of the aid so it could decide whether it was allowed under EU competition rules.

"The commission has an open mind. It's perfectly possible that this money which has been paid out can qualify as rescue aid," Todd said.

"If wages were paid by Government subsidy every week for the next year, that would be a problem, but that is not what we are talking about here," Todd said.

Britain's last major carmaker collapsed last Friday after it failed to agree to a rescue deal with China's Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

Todd said under EU law no new aid should be given until the commission had been notified.

"If we receive that formal notification ... in a matter of days I don't think anybody could argue that the state of competition in the single market can suffer. We don't live in a perfect world.

"We understand there are certain constraints in this particular case, that they want to keep the firm as a going concern and attractive to a buyer," Todd said.

- REUTERS