The Future of the EU Merger Control Regime: The Review of the Merger Regulation
M. Fevzi TOKSOY
Introduction
After eleven years of application of the Merger Regulation1 The European Commission has now initiated a new discussion on the efficiency of the European Union merger control law2. For this purpose, a Green Paper3 has been published to sum up the views of the Commission on a possible amendment of the Regulation 4069/89 since the modification in June 1997 with the Council Regulation (EC) No 1310/974.
Undoubtedly, during its application, the Regulation provided effective merger control across the EU with its short, strict legal deadlines5. However, with the changing economic situations in global terms, the expected growth in the number of notifications due to the coming enlargement of the EU, the introduction of the Euro and, above all, the experience gathered during the application of the Regulation made it necessary to undertake such a reform. Accordingly, this reform is expected to lead to the amendment of the Regulation in a way to meet the challenges posed by global competition, monetary union, market integration, enlargement and the need to cooperate with other jurisdictions.
In this perspective, it is worth having a look at the analysis of the Commission in its Green Paper. This will lead us to a better understanding of the Commission's perception of reform and the points of stress which are estimated as candidates for future radical modifications.
