Brussels, 13/05/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 13 May, the European Commission approved the planned merger whereby the French railway operator SNCF MOBILITES is to acquire sole control of Eurostar International Limited. The Commission was concerned that the deal as originally notified might hinder the entry of competitors into these markets.
The Commission's decision is conditional upon commitments to facilitate the entry of new railway operators on the London-Brussels and London-Paris routes, on which Eurostar is currently the only operator (access to standard and cross-channel areas and services, such as ticket offices, passenger information services and cross-channel areas in stations in France and Belgium currently managed by SNCF and SNCB; access to maintenance centres in France, the UK and Belgium currently managed by SNCF, Eurostar and SNCB, for services such as overnight storage, servicing and cleaning of trains and light maintenance; access to train paths currently used by Eurostar at peak times, should a new entrant not be able to obtain such access through the usual procedure for path allocation by the infrastructure managers).
Since its creation in 2010, Eurostar has been jointly controlled by SNCF and the British government. SNCB holds a minority stake in the company. On 4 March 2015, the British government announced that it had concluded an agreement to sell its stake in Eurostar to a private company. With this operation, SNCF negotiated a new shareholders' pact, which will give it sole control of Eurostar. (Lionel Changeur)