The US auto maker General Motors confirmed on Thursday that the company shall retain its all the four plants of its European subsidiary Opel in Germany. However, GM plans to slash another 9,500 jobs in Europe as part of restructuring to make the company profitable all over again.

Nick Reilly, the head of GM’s European operations assured the state premier of Thuringia in eastern Germany Christine Lieberknecht that Opel’s Eisenach plant in the state will remain open. “Eisenach is a highly efficient plant and we want to keep it as an important resource for Opel,” he said.

Reilly had earlier confirmed that the Ruesselsheim plant along with the two other German sites in Bochum in the state of North Rhine Westphalia and in Kaiserslautern in the state of Rhineland Palatinate will also be kept.

“The Ruesselsheim plant is extremely important for GM as it is not only a manufacturing plant but also a research and development centre,” Reilly said adding, “The General Motors’ recent decision to shift its European headquarters from Zurich to Ruesselsheim is an indication of how much importance the GM has for the site.”