Brussels, 18/03/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will, “as quickly as possible”, consider the restructuring plan, which Brussels received on 17 March, for British bank Northern Rock. The outline business plan will seek to show how the £24 billion (€31 billion) of aid from the British state will make the bank profitable once again. The Commission spokesman told press that “it is clear that the bank must shrink”. He stressed that “the Commission is not asking for redundancies,” but any “reduction” must necessarily entail some loss of jobs. The bank has confirmed that a third of its 6,000 employees will be made redundant by 2011, most in the North-East of England, a region which receives European regional development funding. In a press release, the English bank repeats that it wants to become “a smaller, more focused, mortgages and savings bank”, before becoming stock exchange listed once again. The Commission spokesman said that “the restructuring plan has to prove that the bank will become more viable, and that normally at least 50% of the restructuring costs will be borne by the restructured company, the rest coming from (state) aid” to avoid competition distortion as much as possible. He also said that the Commission had received a formal complaint from Danish banks. Northern Rock opened a subsidiary, specialising in online savings, in Copenhagen in February 2007. The Commission investigation is not in response to this complaint, said the spokesman, but it will take account of all comments from interested parties, including Northern Rock competitors. (C.D.)