Opel rescue plan no basis for decision: Steinbrueck

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German government cannot make a decision on the future of struggling carmaker Opel on the basis of the rescue proposal put forward so far, Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said on Thursday.

"What we have so far is not a workable basis for a decision," Steinbrueck told Deutschlandfunk radio.

The government was aware of its responsibilities and was prepared to live up to them, if possible, he added.

"But we can't make decisions that are irresponsible on a completely inadequate basis," Steinbrueck said.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has left open the possibility of granting Opel state aid, possibly in the form of guarantees.

However, the government appears to have toughened its line with the carmaker's parent company, General Motors.

GM Europe submitted a rescue plan for Opel last week, proposing that its German unit be partly spun off.

Christoph Schmidt, who on Wednesday was appointed to the government's five-strong panel of economic advisers, warned Germany against taking a stake in the carmaker.

"If the state tries to rescue jobs like that, by distorting competition this way, it's accepting that other companies in the market will suffer all the more," Schmidt, who is also head of the Essen-based RWI economic research institute, told Reuters.

GM Europe head Carl-Peter Forster has said that Germany, where 25,000 Opel staff work, would have to provide the lion's share of the 3.3 billion euros ($4.15 billion) in state aid the company has said it needs to survive.

However, Merkel told members of her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) earlier this week that Opel ought not to expect any special treatment and should not be saved at any price, a CDU official who had attended the meeting told Reuters.

($1=.7946 euros)

(Reporting by Kerstin Doerr and Reinhard Becker, Writing by Dave Graham; Editing by Greg Mahlich)