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E uropean C ommission merger control: Combining competition and the creation of larger E uropean firms
Author(s) -
Thatcher Mark
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
european journal of political research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.267
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1475-6765
pISSN - 0304-4130
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6765.12040
Subject(s) - champion , competition (biology) , business , industrial organization , market economy , economics , political science , law , ecology , biology
The article examines the E uropean C ommission's use of its legal powers over mergers. It discusses and tests two views. One is that the ‘neoliberal’ C ommission has ended previous industrial policies of aiding ‘national champion’ firms to grow through mergers and instead pursues a ‘merger‐constraining’ policy of vigorously using its legal powers to block mergers. The other is that the C ommission follows an ‘integrationist policy’ of seeking the development of larger E uropean firms to deepen economic integration. It examines C ommission decisions under the 1989 EC Merger Regulation between 1990 and 2009. It selects three major sectors that are ‘likely’ for the ‘merger‐constraining’ view – banking, energy and telecommunications – and analyses a dataset of almost 600 C ommission decisions and then individual merger cases. It finds that the C ommission has approved almost all mergers, including by former ‘national champion’ firms. There have been only two prohibitions over 20 years in the three sectors and the outcome has been the creation of larger E uropean firms through mergers. It explains how the C ommission can pursue an integrationist policy through the application of competition processes and criteria. The wider implication is that the C ommission can combine competition policy with achieving the ‘industrial policy’ aim of aiding the development of larger E uropean firms.