The European Commission’s take on competition is “wild” and a “very outdated interpretation of the law,” French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told Parliament following Wednesday’s decision, adding that it was a “bad decision” made for the “wrong reasons”. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux denounced an “economic error and a political mistake;” while Junior Finance Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said that Brussels had “totally missed the mark”. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, for his part, expressed bitter disappointment over the ruling, and said the rejection was both a political and an “economic mistake”.
Speaking on France 2 television on Wednesday morning before the official announcement, Mr Le Maire said that Antitrust Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s decision “will serve the economic and industrial interests of China” and hurt those of Europe.
“The criteria chosen by the Commission are not the right ones,” he warned, stressing that the “pertinent market for analysing competition is the world market and not the European market.”
Mr Le Maire added: “It is a political mistake: the role of the Commission is to defend the economic interests of Europe.”
The EU’s move, he continued, will “prevent Alstom and Siemens, the two champions of rail signalling and rail transport, from having the same weight as their Chinese competitor.”
He elaborated on his comments in an interview published on Le Figaro daily’s website later in the day, saying that Mrs Vestager’s decision was a “costly mistake” that would hurt the European rail sector, before once again accusing Brussels of “defending” China’s interests.
Mr Le Maire said: “It’s true, today’s world is moving faster than Europe. I hope that what has just happened will act as an electroshock and force Europe to change – and fast.”
The merger, which was announced in September 2017, had been hailed by Paris and Berlin as the birth of a European industrial rail champion, a “Railbus” equal to Europe’s aviation giant Airbus, able to compete with state-backed foreign rivals such as China’s railway behemoth, CRRC.
But after months of investigation and a rejected offer of concessions from the companies, Mrs Vestager said a Siemens-Alstom alliance would have created a quasi-monopoly in the European market, choke off competition and lead to higher prices for passengers.
Blocking mergers is rare for the EU’s antitrust office. In three decades, it has approved more than 6,000 deals and rejected less than 30.
She told a news briefing: “The Commission prohibited the merger because the two companies were not willing to address our serious competition concerns.
“Without sufficient remedies, this merger would have resulted in higher prices for the signalling systems that keep passengers safe and for the next generations of very high-speed trains.”
Alstom is best known for making France’s TGV and Siemens for Germany’s ICE high-speed trains. They also make rail signalling systems.
Competition authorities in Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain also expressed concerns that a Franco-German rail giant would have been in a commanding position and eventually wiped out smaller rail manufacturers.
Such a scenario would have triggered a spike in market prices, they said.
Paris and Berlin have since pledged to jointly propose changes to European competition rules in order to better respond to growing rivalry from global giants.
Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker fiercely defended the EU’s competition policy on Tuesday, denouncing those “who are saying that the Commission is composed of blind, stupid, stubborn technocrats”.