'Ending the free-for-all': MEPs back rules to curb access for subsidised foreign companies
European lawmakers on Thursday approved new rules to reduce acquisitions of companies or bids for public contracts by subsidised foreign companies.
The Foreign Subsidies Regulation was primarily aimed at curbing Chinese subsidised companies' ability to buy European firms or outbid them for EU government contracts but comes at a period of heightened trade tensions between the bloc and the US.
It will enable the Commission to investigate subsidies granted by non-EU public authorities — such as zero-interest loans, below-cost financing, preferential tax treatment or direct state grants — to companies operating in the EU and take measures if these are found to be distorting the single market.
"This is an important piece of legislation. It is much needed as an addition to our toolbox to make sure businesses have a level playing field, that they compete on their ideas, on their innovation," Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager told MEPs in Brussels prior to the vote.
Parliament rapporteur, Luxembourg MEP Christophe Hanssen (EPP), said: "Today we move one step closer to finally ending the free-for-all that has been pitting European companies, subject to stringent subsidy control, against foreign competitors with unfettered access to foreign largesse."
He also argued that "it's difficult to imagine that the sale of strategic stakes in companies as important such as the port of Hamburg could happen without the Commission looking more closely at where the funds are coming from."
Companies will need to let the EU's executive know about planned mergers and acquisitions if one of the parties involved has an EU turnover of at least €500 million and there is a foreign financial contribution of at least €50 million.
The European
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