EC will look to coordinate timing of proposed foreign subsidy scrutiny with merger reviews – Cambre/Parr

A European Commission (EC) proposal to subject acquisitions backed by foreign subsidies to regulatory scrutiny would aim to be swift and coordinated with any parallel merger review, the author of the proposal said today (15 July).

On 17 June, the EC adopted a white paper focusing on “levelling the playing field” on foreign subsidies, proposing an ex-post regime for scrutinising foreign subsidies of enterprises operating in the EU together with a new ex-ante tool for reviewing acquisitions by state-backed enterprises, as reported.

In relation to the ex-ante tool, Eddy de Smijter, head of the International Relations Unit at the EC’s Directorate General for Competition, said that the Commission needs “to act swiftly” on foreign subsidy reviews, given that they may run in parallel with the competition review of a merger.

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