On the same day that I wrote about the VW law, 40,000 car workers demonstrated outside the Volkswagen headquarters in Wolfsburg Germany, against the planned takeover by luxury car maker Porsche.

The union IG Metall opposes the EU commission proposal to scrap the VW law, which protects the company from hostile bids. Workers are reported to be furious.

For once unions and management appear to be in agreement. The supervisory board of VW voted to keep the 20% blocking vote - which means that the federal government of Lower Saxony keeps the right to veto a hostile takeover. Other rules that favour minorities, including limiting investors to a 20% vote regardless of their stake, have been abolished.

Lower Saxony prime minister Christian Wulff described it as “the European Court of Justice's decisions being executed meticulously.'' So will their clever interpretation of the decision do the trick?

Union leaders are willing to shift their protests to Brussels if EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy decides to go ahead and make another objection to the law.

And that’s not the end of the story - Wulff has said the state of Lower Saxony will buy another 5% in order to keep its blocking vote.