Brussels, 07/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - In an interview with The Financial Times, Commissioner Monti was optimistic about the possibility of finding a solution to the public guarantees granted to the Landesbanken, in contradiction, states the Commission, with the European competition rules. After a first interview at the beginning of the week, Commissioner Monti will meet, for a second time, on Friday, Mr Koch-Weser, Secretary of State at the German Finance Ministry and Mr Steinbrück, German Finance Minister for North-Rhine Westfalen (NRW), as well as the representatives of Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB), the largest and the most involved of the public banks - and the Association of NRW savings banks, in order to seek a common solution (see EUROPE of 27 January 2001, p.9 and 28 July, p.9). WestLB and Mr Koch Weser are expected to defend a project for the creation of a company under private law that will group the investment bank activities of WestLB, a solution that is opposed by the 11 other Landesbanken. Describing the first meetings as "encouraging", Mr Monti made a gesture with a view to bringing the situation out of deadlock, hinting that the case of WestLB should not necessarily serve as a reference for settling more general issues. We recall that, at the end of January, the Commission had given the German government one month to present its observations in this matter.