Abstract
The European Union is intensively discussing changes in its merger control to adapt the existing regime, laid down by Regulation No 139/2004 (EUMR), to new realities. These are, besides the challenge pose by the development of digital economy, the changes brought by the global success of competitors from non-EU countries.
The latter are presumed to be better placed to succeed in global competition due a more lenient policies of their home countries while the EU businesses remain subject to a disproportionally stricter competition supervision. In the current EU, the call for some subordination of competition decision-making to industrial policy priorities is growing in order to allow EU-based companies to grow through mergers and acquisitions and reach the size necessary for withstanding competitive pressure from non-EU corporate giants.
The text maps and evaluates current proposals for changes to the EU merger control regime, advocating maintaining a strong competition policy unsubordinated to industrial policy, however a competition policy which would be more sensitive to its wider context.