Brussels, 22/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - During the World Summit on Competition organised by the OECD in Paris last week, there was some divergence of views between European Commissioner Mario Monti and William Kolasky, from the US Anti-Trust Department. Referring to the failure of the GE/Honeywell merger due to blocking by European competition authorities despite the fact that the US Department had given its assent, Mr Kolasky affirmed that, despite complete cooperation on both sides of the Atlantic, the merger had failed as there was a fundamentally different interpretation regarding the impact that the operation would have on the markets. "Cooperation alone will not always resolve significant barriers of difference among anti-trust regimes", he said, considering that the European approach in this affair was "not soundly grounded in economic theory nor supported by empirical evidence". Mr Kolasky also indirectly brought into question the aims pursued by the European competition authorities. He said that antitrust laws are not aimed at protecting the private sector from the way the market works but to protect consumers from market failings. Mr Monti was clear in his refusal of this saying that he regretted the "gross misrepresentation" of EU competition policy and noted, on the subject of Euro-US cooperation that: "if serious progress is to be made, I do not believe that it is helpful that one or the other side launches a public debate or assessment".
Answering questions on these exchanges, Amelia Torres, spokesperson for Mr Monti, remarked that "it is no secret that the US doesn't agree with the Commission decision on GE-Honeywell and the underlying theory that we used in assessing the deal".