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DETROIT — General Motors and Opel/Vauxhall have decided to withdraw all applications for government loan guarantees throughout Europe.

Apparently, while the reasons behind asking for government guarantees has not changed, according to the company, the process of receiving assistance has been "more complex and longer than anticipated and the results are still not finalized or certain."

Basically, officials said they need to move on so they have decided to fund the investments internally. In fact, officials said GM's recently improved financial health has helped to drive this decision.

"We appreciate the support indicated by certain governments, especially the UK and Spain, but we need to move on," explained Nick Reilly, president of GM Europe and Chairman of the Management Board of Opel/Vauxhall. "The decision of the German government last week was disappointing and means that the conclusion of these guarantees is again likely to be months away.

"To be clear, our funding needs have not changed and we were led to believe that loan guarantees made available to other European companies under the EU program to help offset the impact of the global economic crisis would be equally available to Opel/Vauxhall. But after a very long process defined by governments, this has turned out to not be the case," he continued.

"We are grateful for the decision and support of our parent company, which will allow us to move forward with confidence in this very competitive industry. We cannot afford to have uncertain funding plans and new time-consuming complex negotiations at this time when we need to keep investing in new products and technologies. With these new products and the impact of restructuring, we expect to return to profitability shortly," he highlighted.

As a part of the European-wide request, the UK government had committed guarantees for 330 million Euro of bank loans, and a similar amount had been available from Spain.

The total amount asked for had been about 1.8 billion Euro throughout Europe.

The German federal states apparently expressed a willingness last week to enter new negotiations, according to officials. Two weeks ago, Opel/Vauxhall signed agreements with its European employee representatives for restructuring the company, labor cost savings and for commitments to product investments. These agreements are not tied to government guarantees.

Ultimately, with the parent company's help, Opel/Vauxhall indicated it will be able to fully concentrate on the implementation of its growth plan, and, in particular, the 11 Euro billion investment plan into future products discussed in February.

"Opel/Vauxhall products continue to be highly successful in the marketplace, with sales volume consistently beating internal expectations. The new Astra five-door version, which was introduced at the end of last year, already registered more than 160,000 orders within six months — just 20,000 orders shy of the full-year target of 180,000," officials stated.

"For the new Meriva, Opel/Vauxhall received 30,000 orders within just a few weeks. The company continues to be on track for the launch of seven new products this year and another five next year, including the revolutionary new Opel/Vauxhall Ampera," they concluded.