Brussels, 18/06/2001 (Agence Europe) - Competition Commissioner Mario Monti deplored the criticism and the hasty conclusions made by the media on the subject of the European attitude regarding the merger between General Electric (GE) and Honeywell. He categorically denied allegations that reasons of a more political kind lay behind the veto from his services. "This criticism is not only unjustified but also hard to understand since the case has not been decided yet", he said.
I deplore the attempts that have had as aim to misinform the public and to caused a political intervention. It is completely out of context in an antitrust procedure and has no impact on the Commission. It is an issue of law and economics, not politics, he stated in short. The Commissioner, moreover, underlined that the Commission has applied for the last ten years the same basic principals in all cases of competition and this without exception, in the fundamental aim of guaranteeing consumers a wide rang of products at competitive prices. The nationality of companies and political consideration have not played and will never play any role in the investigation of a merger, nor in the present case nor in others, he put forward. The Commission recalled its fears of seeing the reduction of competition in the sectors for engines and aerospace in the case of GE and Honeywell merging (see EUROPE of 15 and 16 June, p.9 and 12). It indicated that it was closely studying the concerns of several companies "on both sides of the Atlantic", among which several American companies, while underlining that Boeing and Airbus have not been especially active during the hearings, as certain media had insinuated. The French daily "Le Monde" thus published in its weekend edition an interview with Harry Stonecipher, Boeing Vice -President, in which the latter considers the GE proposals completely "reasonable", letting it be inferred that Airbus was trying to influence the Commission in its decision: It is not the airlines that oppose the merger, it is Airbus. If the Commission blocks this plan, it could be that there are difficulties in the area of trade. The United States has approved this merger. If Europe refuses it, what will happen? You don't really make friends?, he stated. For its part, the Commission states its surprise over the difficulty of reaching a compromise over this dossier, underlining that there exist paths that could have been exploited in order to avoid any additional sell-off in the aeronautic sector.