BRUSSELS — The European Union's central administration, the EU Commission, has announced it will not permit the proposed Siemens-Alstom merger, which originally had been targeted to be complete by the end of 2018. The antitrust review of the de...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/02/06-european-union-blocks-siemens-alstom-deal
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
Yeah and this is one reason Britain wants out. EU does not see itself as a world player trading and competing with the rest of the world but as a montage of countries competing internally against each other in which the EU is used to protect the member countries from one another.
Otherwise they would have approved the merger because when viewed on a worldwide basis this combined firm has plenty of competition (the Germans are correct). When viewed just within the EU the merger limits competition between member countries. Which is the priority of the EU? Managing internal trade between EU member countries or facing the world as a unit and managing trade between the EU and the world. You can't have it both ways without injuring the other.
Indeed. Un-elected officials accountable to no-one hiding behind a wall of faceless bureaucracy making decisions that affect all.
In case we've forgotten, or have never learned, that's the reason we fought a revolution in this country, not over a three-penny tax on tea.
Why the objections of Brexiting Britain or non-member Australia should have held any weight is beyond logic.
Appointed administrators often have to make these decisions because the elected lawmakers purposely put vague language in the statutes, leaving the interpretation to somebody else.
Stupid faceless Bureaucrats will get what no European with any sense wants, two weak sisters that the Chinese will destroy and then purchase the assets at fire sale prices. When it is all over, and this gang of nincompoops is either retired or dead, Europe will have a Chinese monopoly supplier.
Not that our Justice Department is notably smarter.
Alot of pronouncements, but it would be nice if Alstom and Siemens would just compete in each others countries. In France their are small numbers of Siemens locomotives used, but no EMUs or High-Speed trainsets running(other than Eurostar and DB's). In Germany the situation is reversed small numbers of Alstom DMUs plus SNCF TGVs balancing DB's workings into France. Only Bombardier sells in both countries, and that's because Bombardier has plants in both countries.
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