China/EU : The Gradual Evolution of the EU Commission’s Merger Control Decisional Practice Towards SOEs Amidst An Increasingly Protectionist World
This article updates the article published by the authors in 2012 on the treatment of Chinese SOEs involved in acquisitions of European companies under the EU Merger Regulation. In this updated version, the authors discuss the lessons learnt in this regard from the European Commission decision in the EDF/CGN/NNB case. They explain that, in fact, despite providing some helpful clarifications, this decision still leaves many questions open for future determination, thus enabling the European Commission to retain flexibility for future cases. More broadly, the authors also consider public interest considerations in M&A policy towards Chinese SOEs which recently culminated in the adoption by the European Commission of a draft European regulation aiming to screen certain foreign direct investments in the EU