After the announcement last week that all production of the VW Golf would be relocated to the company's factories in Germany, the jobs of 4,000 Volkswagen workers in Belgium became threatened . But a proposal being championed by the German company's new chief executive is generating hope in the city. VW CEO Martin Winterkorn says the company may use its Belgian plant to assemble a new car in the line offered by the company's upscale Audi subsidiary.

Starting in 2009, the Wolfsburg-based company is considering production in Brussels of the planned "A1" compact car from Audi, SPIEGEL has learned. The VW chief executive plans to meet Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt this week to discuss his proposition and possible solutions to bridge the current workers until the car is ready to hit the assembly line.

The condition for maintaing production in Brussels would be that Audi be able to do so at costs that permit it to remain competitive -- a precondition that would obviously require concessions from the labor union. Winterkorn's predecessor at the helm, Bernd Pischetsrieder , had previously rejected plans to build the car.