The EU’s merger control guidelines are currently under revision. We have already contributed to the public consultation. On 19 November 2025, we initiated an exchange in the European Parliament on the ongoing revision of these guidelines and joined forces with other civil society partners.
Cross-party event in the Parliament
The cross-party expert roundtable was hosted by Green MEP Rasmus Andresen, the spokesperson of the German Greens in the Parliament. Andresen is also co-responsible for the Parliament’s annual report on the state of EU competition policy. Strengthening merger control is a key concern for him.
European Commission presents the state of play
At the event, representatives of the European Commission presented the current status of the revision. This sparked a lively and constructive discussion. The Commission emphasised that civil society voices are essential in this process.
Up to now, they explained, it has mainly been companies approaching them on merger control—many of which advocate a weakening of the rules. Given the very small number of prohibited mergers and the already high concentration of market power in Europe, such calls are unacceptable. In its own recent study, “Protecting Competition in a Changing World”, the Commission itself noted declining competition and rising market concentration in Europe.
Civil society criticism of the current merger control regime
The event created space for us to clearly articulate our criticism of the current merger control framework and its methods. In our contribution, we focused in particular on the debate around so-called “European champions”.
This debate reflects the proposal to allow more mergers in selected sectors, such as telecommunications, in order to create large companies that are supposedly more globally competitive. From our perspective, this approach is misguided. Only effective and fair competition can foster competitive and innovative European companies. Rising concentration harms society and democracy and makes little economic sense. Since the publication of the Draghi report on EU competitiveness in September 2024, however, the debate on “champions” has unfortunately persisted—despite already heightened market concentration in the EU.
Other issues discussed in the expert exchange included how inadequate merger control stifles innovation, its implications for media pluralism and labour markets, and how additional tools for measuring market power could improve the Commission’s analysis. More on that here.
What’s next?
The European Commission will hold workshops on the guidelines in Brussels in December and January, in which we will participate. Together with our European partners, we will contribute actively to shaping the revised merger control guidelines. Our goal is to strengthen merger control in a way that curbs further market concentration in Europe.
Background infos
