EU: Moscovici says EC will be objective on Alstom-Siemens deal

The European Commission will be objective—but not naive—and will take into account future economic developments when it decides over a rail deal between industrial groups Alstom and Siemens, an EU senior official said.

“We want to take into account the evolutions of the economy of tomorrow. We are not naive,” EU Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici told reporters on Tuesday, January 15, after the Commission’s weekly meeting, at which the Franco-German deal was discussed.

Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager briefed her fellow commissioners over the merger, in an unusual discussion over competition matters prompted by strong pressure from Paris and Berlin to authorize the deal.

Moscovici, addressing reporters about the meeting, said that as a French national he was “attentive” to Paris’s arguments, but stressed the decisions that will be made will be objective and “with a strategy.”

Supporters of the deal say EU antitrust rules should be updated so that they can foster European industrial champions against international competition. Moscovici said the EU policy was not “obsolete.”

Full Content: Reuters

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