EC Mergers Regulation and Regional Economic Cohesion

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Abstract
Despite the fact that the European Community (EC) is committed to reducing the economic inequalities between and within its member states, EC mergers policy has no clear mechanism by which the regional economic consequences of takeovers can be assessed or taken into account during merger investigations. This is important, because there is clear evidence that external takeovers are one method by which regional economic imbalance may be exacerbated. In this paper, proposals are put forward for the explicit inclusion of an economic cohesion clause into EC mergers regulation. Also, the advantages such a clause would have are discussed, and the possible objections to the consideration of regional issues during merger investigations are assessed.