Europe in no hurry to loosen antitrust stance
Repeats to widen distribution, no change to content of story
Looser antitrust stance would face resistance
Draghi report offers fresh ideas, still pro-competition
Vestager set to hand over reins to successor
By Mark John and Foo Yun Chee
Sept 16 (Reuters) -Mario Draghi's call last week for a revamp of Europe's tough pro-competition policy rules prompted much speculation that the EU's next antitrust chief may take a lighter-touch approach to mergers that could yield European industrial "champions".
While that may ultimately depend on the political mood in Brussels and Europe's national capitals as the bloc's economy lags behind its global rivals, there is little for now to suggest a more permissive shift, sources and analysts said.
If anything, the EU consensus remains intact that policies that uphold competition, keep down prices and ensure a level playing field across the 27 national markets of the EU are one of the few bright spots in the region's struggling economy.
"If you loosen EU competition rules to build huge companies, create European champions, you will get companies that are French, German and Italian. The smaller countries will wonder 'What's in it for us?'," said one senior euro zone official.
Certain deals - for example one that helped a green technology player against Chinese competition - could be politically viable, the official said, but added: "If it were to be across the board, then it is a no-go".
The EU's high-profile antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who only last week scored two major wins against Big Tech on tax fairness and anticompetitive practices, will soon hand over to her successor in a new European Commission lineup.
Who that is will depend on fraught negotiations between EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and member states to produce a team reflecting the geographic and political balance within the region, as well as gender and other criteria.
But any new arrival will be greeted by a near 900-head Directorate General of Competition which, long-time antitrust watchers say, is institutionally imbued with a belief in the economic benefits of strong competition policy.
"And a new Competition Commissioner is always dependent on their services," said Umberto Gambini, partner at the Forward Global business consultancy and a former European Parliament lawmaker specialised in antitrust and state aid matters.
HIGH BURDEN OF PROOF
It is far from clear in any case that what Draghi proposed last week would be a radical departure from the current line.
In his long-awaited 400-page report, the former European Central Bank noted "there is a question" about whether vigorous competition policy prevented European companies reaching the scale needed to compete with Chinese or American giants.
In particular he proposed that future antitrust rulings take more into account factors such as whether a merger might give the new entity more investment clout to innovate.
But asked if that meant any Commission acting on his proposals today would likely rubber-stamp the Alstom-Siemens engineering mega-merger it blocked in 2019, he only said "some of the reasons for blocking that merger would not be there".
"Let me be very clear: we start from a common condition ... Competition is good. It is good for investment, good for productivity and good for income distribution," he said.
Indeed, the Draghi report put the burden on the merging parties to justify why any "innovation defence" should override other concerns about their link-up - with an especially high bar for companies that are already dominant market players.
That reassured supporters of the strong pro-competition policy promoted by Europe and which the Biden administration has sought to take on board with Lina Kahn as chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
"A lot of people in Europe were telling me the (Draghi) report was going to say we needed less competition enforcement ... That is not what he said," Fiona Scott Morton, senior fellow at the EU economic think tank Bruegel said.
Instead she pointed to his proposals on new tools to boost antitrust enforcement; to force firms to make their networks and products interoperable with others'; and how to judge risks such as future product shortages in any merger decision.
"There are some nice new ideas as well as a doubling-down to make sure we have productivity in the economy and not a bunch of lazy monopolists who charge high prices and don't deliver," she said.
Additional reporting by Foo Yun Chee and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Editing by Hugh Lawson
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
