The futures of Vauxhall, the British car-maker, and the German company Opel hinged tonight on an intense round of horse-trading between politicians and manufacturers.

Thousands of jobs are at stake across Europe, with Britain pitted in particular against Germany to keep open plants in danger of closure.

The European Commission agreed to organise a meeting of ministers from all EU countries with an interest in the Opel and Vauxhall amid growing anger at the role played by Germany, in deciding which bidder will end up acquiring them.

Four bidders were trying to unlock billions of euros of German loan guarantees to save the European branch of General Motors. The US car giant faces a June 1 deadline to restructure or file for bankruptcy. To help with the disposal of its European plants, and to prevent them being sucked into bankruptcy proceedings, GM said it would package together the assets of Opel and Vauxhall.

“Legally this will ring-fence and isolate the assets from any potential developments,” said Karin Kirchner, of GM Europe.

The contenders for Opel include Fiat, the profitable Italian group which could be on the road to becoming the world’s second largest car maker after Toyota, and Ontario-based Magna International. These two appeared to be the frontrunners.

Another contender is RHJ International, a Brussels-listed private equity company that has invested heavily in the car industry including a 60 per cent stake in Asahi Tec Corp, a Japanese car parts maker. The rank outsider seemed to be the Beijing Automative Industry Corporation, China’s fifth largest car producer.

“I think the Chinese bid has come in at such a late stage that there will be little time to give it the appropriate consideration,” said Peer Steinbrueck, the German finance minister, before going into the meeting that was expected to last until the early hours of Thursday morning.

The negotiations on Opel are highly politicised - a general election is due in September - and this has coloured the bidding. Magna calculates job losses of 9,000 across Europe; 2,500 of them in Germany. But just ahead of the Chancellery meeting last night Magna hinted that it could shift the production of the Opel Astra from Antwerp in Belgium to Bochum. Job losses in Germany would thus amount to only 300 – and Britain and Belgium would probably bear the brunt of the lay-offs.

That plan would be welcomed by Juergen Ruettgers, prime minister of North Rhine Westphalia, where Bochum is located. Mr Ruettgers is a Christian Democrat, like Chancellor Angela Merkel. The bid is thus strategically pitched and immediately gained the backing of Klaus Franz, head of Opel’s works council.

The Magna bid is backed by Sberbank, Russia’s largest bank, and Oleg Deripaska’s truck company, Gaz.

The logic is that Opel would be part of a big push into the Russian market.

Fiat meanwhile has promised to cut fewer than 10,000 jobs. This could entail closing an engine factory in Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland Palatinate. The prime minister of that region, Kurt Beck, a Social Democrat, was thus trying to mobilise the other German politicians against the Fiat proposals. Unions are nervous that Fiat has too many product overlaps with both Opel and Vauxhall and that the redundancies could soar much higher than promised.

Both Magna and Fiat are talking of finding “another mission” for the Vauxhall van plant in Luton. But no details have yet leaked out about their attitude to the other British plants.

Fiat made itself more interesting to the German politicians yesterday when it said that it would require €6 billion rather than €7 billion loan guarantees from the state.

Magna critics meanwhile complain that it is not putting up enough capital - the talk at the moment is of a €700 million euro investment. BAIC promises to invest a similar amount but says it will not close plants in Germany for at least two years -no mention of Britain - and will need substantially less than €5 billion in credit line guarantees.

Independent economists were sharply critical of the amount of cash that the government was ear-marking to save jobs.

“The government is earmarking between €198,000 and €298,000 for each saved job, “ said Hans-Werner Sinn head of the influential IFO institute, “but this is well above what it would cost for a new hire. The money should be used in a way that guarantees as many jobs as possible across German industry. They’re just handing out money to the people who shout the loudest.”