European Union News - Internal Market

The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Continental AG, a German manufacturer of car components, by Schaeffler KG, also of Germany. After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.

The European Commission is satisfied with the adoption by the European Parliament of its proposal to substantially strengthen EU-rules on toy safety. It gives consumers assurance that toys sold in the EU fulfil the highest safety requirements world-wide, especially those relating to the use of chemical substances.

One year after the entry into force of a new EU Directive meant to liberalise TV rules and remove outdated and bureaucratic restrictions on the provision of digital TV over the internet, video on demand and mobile TV in Europe, EU Member States have made little progress in adapting national rules. The European Commission asks, within this context, the Member states to rule with a light hand while updating TV rules in 2009.

The European Commission has cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the acquisition of certain assets of UK mortgage bank Bradford & Bingley plc by Abbey National plc, the UK arm of Banco Santander. After examining the operation, the Commission concluded that the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.

The European Commission wants to tackle obstacles to cross frontier trade in defence related products within the EU, thereby facilitating cross-border procurement of Member States’ armed forces and industrial cooperation in Europe. So far, the circulation of defence related products within the internal market is constrained by a web of heterogeneous and disproportionate national licensing procedures.

The European Commission has updated the lists of Contracting Authorities and utilities that have to follow EU public procurement rules. The lists will give citizens and businesses the opportunity to identify which public authorities in the EU have to submit their public contracts to EU-wide tender procedures.

A total of 528.5 M€ of EU farm money unduly spent by Member States will be claimed back as a result of a decision adopted by the European Commission. The money returns to the Community budget because of inadequate control procedures or non-compliance with EU rules on agricultural expenditure.

This initiative builds on earlier EU-funded work on mapping the different strengths and missions of universities and responds to an invitation by the French Presidency of the EU to explore and test the feasibility of a new ranking system for higher education and research institutions in Europe, in comparison with other world regions. The first results of the envisaged pilot project will be available in the first half of 2011.

The European Commission has taken a decisive step towards the promotion of competitive Mobile TV services in the EU. It has published a set of guidelines for the authorisation of Mobile TV to accelerate roll-out of the service across Europe. Mobile TV revenues worldwide are expected to reach more than €7.8 billion in 2013.

The European Commission has agreed a Communication that aims to improve the functioning of the food supply chain in order to lower prices for consumers. The prices of food have come down significantly from record levels earlier this year but the underlying causes for the surge in agricultural commodity prices in the medium-term -including regulatory restrictions, insufficient competition and speculation, have not disappeared and must be dealt with.

The European Commission decided on December 10th, not to raise any objections to Germany's plan to support the construction of a new port in Wilhelmshaven. The Commission found that the measures adopted by the German authorities are compatible with the Common market.

The European Commission's Clearing and Settlement Advisory and Monitoring Expert Group, CESAME, has issued a comprehensive report on its four years of work on removing industry-related barriers to the cross-border clearing and settlement of securities transactions. This report gives a concise overview of all the work done by the industry to dismantle the six industry-related "Giovannini Barriers" to post-trading and of the state of play on the nine such Barriers attributed to the public sector. It also provides an overview of other pertinent topics related to post-trading which were discussed by the Group.