Brussels, 15/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission welcomed the announcement by Laurent Fabius that France would be contributing to the discussions of revising regulation on mergers (see yesterday's edition of EUROPE page 10). The Commission Green Paper of 11 December explicitly requested Member States and concerned parties to give their comments on the document before 31 March. The announcement of Mr Fabius is therefore perfectly in line with what was expected. Sources close to Commissioner Monti have also stressed that "Chapter headings" quoted by the French Minister correspond for the large part with the points mentioned in the Green Book. As far as the problems are concerned, these same sources emphasise that the Commission cannot base its assessments on the nationality of the companies seeking mergers; it has to apply the same criteria if the company is European or from a non-EU country and make their judgements on the basis of the impact of the operation on the conditions for competition in the common market.