Business in Brief

Music merger inquiry

The European Commission announced on 8 December that it was opening an in-depth inquiry into Universal Music Group’s plans to buy BMG Publishing, saying that the deal could damage the "already concentrated" music publishing market. The Commission promised to give its verdict on the merger by 27 April.

Generous Germany

The Commission announced on 11 December that EU governments paid out €64 billion in state aid in 2005 compared to €65bn the year before. Germany awarded the most state aid (€20bn), followed by France (€10bn), Italy (€6bn) and the UK (€5bn). In relative terms, the most generous countries are Malta (3.16% of GDP), Hungary (1.83%), Finland (1.75%), Cyprus (1.43%) and Sweden (1.08%).

Barroso lauds reform

European Commission President José Manuel Barroso welcomed member states’ progress in implementing reforms under the EU’s Lisbon Strategy but warned that reforms were still at an "early stage". He urged member states to use the current improvement on the economy to speed up reform. The UK, Germany and Spain were praised for making good progress while Poland was criticised.

Energy raids

The offices of three of Germany’s largest energy companies - E.ON, RWE, ENBW - and Sweden’s Vattenfall were raided by Commission antitrust officials on 12 December. The visits follow earlier raids on RWE and E.ON. The Commission is investigating whether the companies kept prices artificially high.

LCD?display probe

The Commission has launched a cartel probe into makers of LCD panels for computer screens, televisions and mobile displays.

TV compromise

MEPs voted for a compromise on revising the Television without Frontiers Directive which would allow product placement provided it was signalled to viewers. In their first reading vote in Strasbourg on 13 December, MEPs also kept the country-of-origin principle which would allow broadcasters to transmit their products throughout the EU’s single market.

Trichet to face MEPs

Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, will appear before a committee of the European Parliament next week (20 December) and is likely to be urged by MEPs to call at least a temporary halt to increases in eurozone interest rates. He is expected to signal a pause in rate-rises but to offer no clues as to how long the pause will last.

Germany has made getting a deal on cutting mobile phone roaming charges a key priority during its six-month presidency of the EU, which starts next January.