EVP Vestager keynote speech at the International Forum of the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht: "Recent Developments in EU merger control"

European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] EVP Vestager keynote speech at the International Forum of the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht: "Recent Developments in EU merger control" Brussels, 25 May 2023 Good morning, Thank you to the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht for bringing this event to Brussels. You asked me to open today's event with remarks on “current issues in European competition policy”. I think you will agree that some of the most current issues are in merger control. On simplification and the effort to cut red tape There are really two sides to our work in merger control. One side concerns the overwhelming majority of cases: the deals that pose no risk to competition. We handle these cases under a so-called “simplified procedure”. Over the past five years, close to 80% of all of our decisions were simplified. That is a huge number, and sometimes does not get the attention that it deserves. Because, as a matter of practice, our simplified procedure has been a success. It cuts red tape and saves resources both on our side but also on the side of the businesses involved. If you look at last year, 291 of our decisions were simplified (out of 368). And these are decisions that are adopted really quickly, about 15 days after they are notified. And this after only a few weeks of pre-notification. So the vast majority of our merger decisions are adopted very quickly. But of course, there is always room for improvement, as practitioners have...