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EU: Comm VP “open” to tweaks to competition policy

By  |  January 9, 2019

European Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen told journalists on Tuesday, January 8, that he would be “open” to consider changes to update competition law in order to cope with the strong competition of US and China firms, but discarded the idea of reforming antitrust rules “entirely” as they worked “well.”

Katainen, who is in charge of Jobs, Growth, and Investment, said that he understood member states’ demands to review EU antitrust rules, given the fierce competition they faced from abroad.

France is one of the most vocal countries in this crusade to change EU’s antitrust rules. Paris is particularly keen to get the Commission’s green light for the Alstom-Siemens merger. However, antitrust commissioner Margrethe Vestager has expressed her concerns about creating a railway giant.

Full Content: EurActiv

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