EU Merger Control


European Union Merger Control: The End of Member State Industrial Policy?

Géraldine Babin LL.M., Columbia Law School, 2015  The 2014 Alstom controversy again brought to light the tension between EU merger control rules[1] and the desires of Member States to pursue their own industrial policy objectives. The French government, wanting to protect its national security interests, maneuvered to obtain significant changes to the deal between ailing French company Alstom and GE, after having clearly voiced its preference for a deal with the German company Siemens.[2] Former Competition Commissioner Kroes herself pointed out the “great ideological divide” that exists between industrial[3] and competition policies. The former stems from an interventionist approach justifying […]