The EU is planning a “radical shake-up” of corporate merger guidelines, as it seeks to build global champions capable of competing with US and Chinese firms, the Financial Times reported.
The new draft guidelines — which would relax rules by asking regulators to weigh “innovation” in addition to consumer welfare — come amid a bloc-wide push to favor “Made-in-Europe” manufacturing.
Bloomberg reported that China lobbied Spain to oppose those efforts after a recent visit by the Spanish leader to Beijing.
Europe trails both the US and China in most major global industries, namely tech.
Former White House adviser Amos Hochstein said at Semafor World Economy that “there’s very little innovation happening at scale” in Europe, citing France’s AI startup Mistral as the exception.