I would like to make a small contribution to the debate to be held by the European Parliament on 16 December, in plenary, on the directive on take-over bids (see this section on 3 December). The financial, industrial, union and political circles involved in this issue know much more about it than I do; but it is a complex subject, and the specialist press doesn't always make it any easier to understand, so that an effort to explain things could help to clarify what's behind this forbidding...