Paris and Berlin will advocate for changes to EU legislation on competition, after the European Commission blocked a merger of rail businesses of France's Alstom and Germany's Siemens, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th February, 2019) Paris and Berlin will advocate for changes to EU legislation on competition, after the European Commission blocked a merger of rail businesses of France's Alstom and Germany's Siemens, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Wednesday.According to European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager, the merger, rejected earlier in the day, would lead to higher prices and less choice in rail industry.
"With my German colleague, Peter Altmaier, we will put forward proposals to transform the European legislation on competition ... We can see that this legislation is static while the economy evolves very quickly," Le Maire told LCI broadcaster.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has called the commission's decision "a bad move" made "on wrong foundations," according to France Info broadcaster.
Le Maire has stressed in the past that creating a European industry champion was essential to winning a competition against Chinese and US companies.
The European Commission argued that Chinese suppliers were not extensively present on the European rail market and Chinese high-speed train producers were no threat to either Alstom or Siemens in "a foreseeable future."
The two companies announced their merger plans in September 2017. Siemens would control slightly more than 50 percent of the new entity, but its headquarters and listing would be in France.
