Brussels, 13/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia says that the changes in EU merger rules under one of his predecessors, Mario Monti (of Italy), facilitated company mergers.
In an interview on French television (BFMTV) on Monday 12 May, Almunia was asked about the French Alstom case, and said that he could not remember a single case over the past decade when the European Commission had said no to a merger of giants, and in over 90% of cases, an unconditional go-ahead is given.
His comments come on the same day as EPP candidate for president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker (of Luxembourg) said he wanted to see a change in competition rules for telecom companies in order to make the European market more competitive and make it easier for companies to expand (see EUROPE 11077). Last week, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said a balance had to be struck between competition and the power of the market so that Europe can score global points. She regretted that when a company wants to expand, the Commission threatens to prevent it (see EUROPE 11076).
The European Commission could decide on 14 May on the planned acquisition by Telefonica Deutschland of E-Plus, the German subsidiary of Dutch company KPN. According to Reuters, new commitments were proposed last week, and the Commission has reportedly postponed the decision until 26 June in order to examine them.
Information about Google. Finally, commenting on the Google case, in which the Commission must decide whether the commitments offered by the web giant will allay the accusations of abuse of the dominant position on the online search publicity market, Almunia said he hoped the decision would be made in July or September, adding that from his personal point of view, the commitments eliminated the concerns expressed by the Commission's competition department. (EL)