The EU must uphold its rules when vetting corporate tie-ups and defy political pressure to allow the creation of “European champions” to rival those in the US and China, according to the bloc’s top civil servant in charge of competition.
Olivier Guersent, who is stepping down after five years in the job, told the Financial Times that Brussels needed to defend open markets and a level playing field amid calls from EU capitals for a looser merger regime to boost competitiveness.
“In a market economy, it is foolish to believe that you will be more competitive with less competition. You have 200 years of economic evidence that tell you the opposite,” said Guersent, a Frenchman who spent decades shaping European antitrust policy.