"The world of the economy is getting tougher, the European Commission must integrate it"

At the microphone of Matthieu Belliard, Nicolas Barré returns to the response of the European Commission, when the Ministers of Economy of France, Germany, Italy and Poland asked him to review its competition rules international.

Summoned by France, Germany, Italy and Poland to review its competition rules, the European Commission replied this morning.

The vice-president of the Commission in charge of competition Margrethe Vestager goes to the front, she confided in several European newspapers. It is widely criticized, as you know, for imposing very strict competition rules on European companies when our Chinese or American competitors are not subject to them. Last week, the Ministers of Economy of these four countries wrote to the Commissioner asking her to review her rules. Answer, I quote: "We are aware that the markets are changing, that the Chinese competition is intensifying and that our rules which are more than 22 years old must evolve". End of quote. It is progress. But it is not won. Because when asked for example about the reasons which led him to block the merger between Alstom and Siemens, the European Commissioner regrets nothing.

And why?

Because it says that there would have been no other European player in high-speed trains, and therefore no competition. What leaves a little perplexed: in the air, there is well only one manufacturer of airliners in Europe with Airbus. Competition is global… That said, Brussels is not deaf to critics. Commissioner Vestager announces that she will better control non-European companies which benefit from State aid and which provide us with unfair competition. It was time, this is progress.

The Commission understands that we have entered an era where the balance of power will be more muscular. Donald Trump, for example, plans to close US public markets to foreigners: if this is the case, Europe cannot remain without reacting. He also plans to take control of a European manufacturer of 5G equipment. The world of economics is hardening. Europe must integrate this new deal.