A group of 46 French and German corporate bosses wrote to their heads of government last October, calling for an urgent change in the merger rules to allow for European champions. Their call was recently backed by the heads of leading Portuguese companies, who said that competition policy is holding continental champions back.
But opposition is mounting from other EU countries, which suspect that the European champions being touted are, in reality, French and German ones in disguise.
“Europe’s global strength comes from open and contestable internal markets, not from companies that have been allowed to concentrate national or EU markets at the expense of competition,” reads a joint position paper spearheaded by Finland and backed by eight of the EU’s smaller and more open economies.
Managing expectations
Competition chief Ribera has stated that she would not give a free pass to deals that harm competition and consumers. The Spanish socialist and von der Leyen’s number two in the Commission has also narrowed the scenarios where arguments around resilience may fly.
A merger that is good for resilience, for example, would create a European contender in a global market dominated by a foreign player. In that scenario, “a merger can enable a European alternative or increase European firms’ negotiating power towards non-EU suppliers,” she told a recent conference in Berlin.
An attempt by Airbus and continental peers Leonardo and Thales to create a €6 billion satellite champion could fit that description — as Elon Musk’s SpaceX extends its lead.