A worker is seen at the assembly line for the Insignia in the Opel car factory in Ruesselsheim, central Germany, in this March 31 file photo. A top executive at Magna International Inc. said Monday that as many as 10,500 jobs at automaker Opel in Europe could be cut, with nearly half of those coming from Germany.

Aurora, Ontario ? As many as 10,500 Opel jobs in Europe could be cut, nearly half of them in Germany, the co-chief executive of Magna International Inc. said Monday, plans which are drawing criticism in countries where the automaker has operations.

Speaking to reporters in Frankfurt, Siegfried Wolf said part of his company’s plan for General Motors Co.’s European unit envisions about 4,500 possible job cuts in Germany, where Adam Opel GmbH is based.

“We’ll do everything we can to avoid job losses,” Wolf said. “If we convince enough customers, we’ll be talking about more, not less employees.”

Opel employs some 49,000 workers in Europe and has plants including in Spain, Britain, Poland and Germany.

At Magna’s headquarters in Aurora, Ontario, near Toronto, the other co-CEO, Don Walker, would not rule out the possibility of Wolf becoming CEO of Opel.

He also said Magna may provide managers to help run Opel, but there would be a “clear firewall” between the two companies.

He said Magna is a minority investor in Opel with three seats on the 20-member board, and any management decision would have to be made by the full board in the coming weeks, he said.

Magna and Russia’s state-owned Sberbank last week agreed to take a 55 percent stake in the struggling Opel. Magna would invest $250 million in the company if the deal goes through, and would hold a 27.5 percent stake. GM would retain 35 percent of Opel, and Opel’s labor unions would get 10 percent.

Magna Vice President of Business Development James Tobin said the Canadian auto parts supplier was encouraged by the German government to enter the Opel deal, and it did so to help GM and Opel, two of its larger customers.

GM, he said, is Magna’s oldest customer at 51 years.

“They were having trouble in Europe, and we were protecting our interests, too, because we do supply quite a bit to Opel,” he said.

Opel will get stability out of the deal, he said, and Magna hopes to keep selling parts to both GM and Opel, which share underpinnings for global small and midsize cars.

Magna officials said that Opel has the ability in the sale contract to build or sell vehicles outside of Europe in two years, excluding the U.S. But any sales outside Europe will have to be discussed with GM, Walker said.

Wolf did not say which plants would be affected or how many workers at them could be in danger of losing their jobs, but referred to Magna’s original plan, part of the bid it made in July, which saw cuts including of up to 2,045 at the plant in Bochum; 830 jobs at the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port, Britain; and 2,321 jobs at its plant in Antwerp, Belgium.

Wolf also wouldn’t directly say whether the plant in Antwerp would close in March 2010, as Magna outlined in its July plan.

He said that jobs might be able to be saved across the company by doing contract work for other companies, for example.