Brussels, 21/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Commission has cleared the acquisition by Haniel Baustoff-Industrie Zuschlagstoffe GmbH of Fels-Werke GmbH, two Germany building materials companies. Following an enquiry, the Commission decided in October 2001 to refer the review of the transaction's impact in the relevant German markets to the Bundeskartellamt and started an investigation with regard to the Dutch market. Haniel, through CVK (a Dutch sand-lime producer cooperative), already holds a dominant position (over 50%) of the materials for building load-bearing walls market. The commission found that the acquisition of Fels would not further strengthen CVK's dominance and authorized the deal in the EEA, but this has no bearing on the assessment to be made by the German authorities.