White Paper. Towards more effective EU merger control (Text with EEA relevance)

In this White Paper, the Commission, ten years after the major overhaul of the EU Merger Regulation in 2004, takes stock of how the substantive test of "significant impediment of effective competition" (SIEC) has been applied and provides an outlook on how to further foster convergence and cooperation between and amongst the Commission and the Member States. It also puts forward proposals for specific amendments aimed at making EU merger control more effective.

The proposals relate to two areas in particular:
- ensuring that the Merger Regulation addresses all sources of possible harm to competition, and thus consumers, caused by concentrations or corporate restructuring, including those stemming from acquisitions of non-controlling minority shareholdings; and
- how to best ensure close cooperation between the Commission and national competition authorities ("NCAs") and an appropriate division of tasks in the field of merger control, in particular, by streamlining the rules for transferring merger cases from Member States to the Commission and vice versa.

This White Paper is accompanied by a Commission Staff Working Document, which analyses in more detail the considerations underlying the White Paper and its policy proposals. It is accompanied by an Impact Assessment, which analyses the potential benefits and costs of various policy options, as well as an executive summary of that Impact Assessment. The views of stakeholders have been sought through a public consultation and are reflected in this White Paper and the Staff Working Document.

ESO: Background information: Mergers: Commission consults on possible improvements of EU merger control rules http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-mergers-commission-consults-on-possible-improvements-of-eu-merger-control-rules/

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)449: Follow the progress of this paper through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:449:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)218: Executive summary of the impact assessment http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:218:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)217: Impact assessment http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:217:FIN

EUR-Lex: SWD(2014)221: Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the white paper http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2014:221:FIN

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