Brussels plans biggest EU merger-rules relaxation in decades to build 'European champions'
Source · Mergers & Acquisitions desk
— Summary
The European Commission is preparing the most significant relaxation of EU merger rules in over two decades, aiming to help European companies scale up to compete with US and Chinese rivals, according to draft guidelines seen by the Financial Times. Brussels will give greater weight to "innovation, investment and resilience of the internal market" when deciding whether to approve deals, broadening the criteria that since the 2000s had focused primarily on the effect of mergers on consumers (pricing power and choice). An EU official called the guidelines "a break from the past" and "an ambitious approach that reflects the realities of increasingly challenging global competition".
The draft keeps effective competition as the core objective but notes that "the growth and scaling-up of firms... so as to reach the necessary size to compete globally, can be pro-competitive" and can have a "positive impact" on the EU. Citing a changed geopolitical context, the document argues the economy has "shifted towards more innovation-heavy sectors where both scale and innovation are critical to compete". The antitrust division is asked to pay closer attention to "scale, innovation, investment and resilience as pro-competitive factors that can benefit from a degree of consolidation".
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has championed this "new approach" supporting companies "scaling up in global markets". Resistance is coming from some liberal member states and parts of the Commission worried that looser rules would hurt innovation, dampen investment, and force consumers to pay more. Dealmakers and investors have long anticipated the reforms, which could unlock consolidation across European industries. The Commission declined to comment. Source: Financial Times, 16 April 2026, Barbara Moens.
The story in one line: Draft EU merger guidelines seen by the FT would, for the first time in over two decades, give explicit weight to scale, innovation and resilience — tilting Brussels towards approving the kind of consolidation needed to build European champions against US and Chinese rivals.
Key numbers
Biggest rules shake-up since the 2000s, when consumer-pricing tests moved to the heart of merger reviews.
Core objective preserved: effective competition remains the legal test.
Four new factors explicitly elevated: scale, innovation, investment, resilience.
Why it matters
Since the 2000s, EU merger control has been built around a narrow question: will a deal let the merged company raise prices for consumers? The draft widens the lens. Innovation, investment capacity and supply-chain resilience become pro-competitive factors in their own right — not side considerations. In practice, this lowers the bar for large cross-border deals in innovation-heavy sectors (tech, semiconductors, defence, pharma) where scale is increasingly a precondition for competing globally. Companies have long complained that scale arguments were always secondary to pricing assessments; the reform moves them to the front.
Takeaway
If adopted, the guidelines reset the probability of approval for European mega-deals that would have struggled under the prior framework — from telecoms consolidation to banking tie-ups. The political resistance (liberal member states, consumer-focused officials) guarantees the final text will be fought over. But the direction of travel is clear: Brussels is trading some consumer-price protection for a shot at continental-scale champions.
Source: Financial Times, 16 April 2026, Barbara Moens.