Incoming EU antitrust chief Ribera plans to ease antitrust rules - El Pais
By Inti Landauro and Belén Carreño
MADRID, Sept 19 (Reuters) -Europe's incoming antitrust chief Teresa Ribera plans to loosen the bloc's competition rules to strengthen European industries and speed up regulatory scrutiny of merger deals, according to an interview in Spanish newspaper El Pais on Thursday.
The comments by Ribera underline the growing protectionism in the 27-country European Union and efforts to help companies better compete with bigger U.S. and Chinese rivals.
Her stance also chimes with a report authored by former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi at the behest of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen which calls for a revamp of EU competition rules and regulators to examine mergers on a pan-European basis.
"(The rules) can be softened in many directions, but always in the sense of strengthening European capacities," Ribera was quoted as saying.
"We are going to reform them. To gain agility and to concentrate efforts on giving industry a strategic European dimension."
She said Europe should focus on creating more than just a few industrial champions.
"Europe's competitiveness is not solved by three or four national champions. We need dimension to compete in international markets, but we also need the internal market to work, with a business ecosystem where things are reasonably balanced," Ribera said.
She also took aim at EU merger rules which critics say are time-consuming and cumbersome, saying that she would seek to shorten the timeframe for scrutinising deals.
Ribera, who has also been tasked with drive the bloc's green transition, cautioned on using public funds for nuclear energy.
"To the question of whether nuclear energy should be promoted, I would say that each country should do what it wants. Public incentives are another matter. That is a very different question," she said.
Reporting by Inti Landauro, Belen Carreno and Pietro Lombardi; Editing by Alexandra Hudson
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